'Nordstjernan's Father Complex'': The Swedish-American Press and the Haijby Affair

"Nordstjernan's Father Complex":
The Swedish-American Press and the
Haijby Affair
EDWARD B U R T ON
The Swedish-American press had an uneasy relationship with
Sweden's Foreign Ministry in the 1950s. Despite the ministry's
efforts, the emigrant newspapers usually portrayed Sweden in
very negative terms. Much of this critical tone in the Swedish-American
press was traditional. In 1914, N o r d s t j e r n a n reported everything in
Sweden from murders to bicycle thefts.1 A N o r d s t j e r n a n editor once
called coverage of Sweden a parade of "events of an unsettling na­ture
. . . [including] fires, murders, suicides, check forgeries, etc."2
Swedish officials long suspected that emigrant editors intentionally
worked to disparage Sweden.3 Reverend Per Pehrsson, for example,
visited America in 1910. When he returned to Sweden, he called the
Swedish-American press "a sewer in which all the filth from Sweden
gathers." Some believed this negativity was deliberate, meant to
keep emigration going. This would, in turn, keep subscription rates
high.4
Much of this came from the Swedish-American editors' mixed
feelings about their former homeland. Emigration changes a person's
basic identity. Such a change may push emigrants to justify endlessly
their decision to leave their home country. The emigrant press still
revered Swedish culture, history, and the very idea of Swedishness.
The mother country naturally could not live up to this idealized
image. This too might have influenced the emigrants' view of Swe­den
as deeply flawed.
EDWARD B U R T O N is a graduate student at the University of Göteborg, with
degrees from B o w d o i n College and Lund University. He teaches modern A m e r i c an
history, with a focus on the C o l d War and the Vietnam conflict. He will defend his
P h . D . dissertation, The Swedish-American Press and the Vietnam War, this year.
31
Professor Ulf Jonas Björk argues that practical causes were often
behind the critical tone. The emigrant papers had limited space for
news coverage of Sweden. Most papers saw events in Sweden as
much less important than covering local Swedish-American news.5
With limited space for Swedish news, editors chose short and direct
news stories. Since accidents or crime stories are easier to tell, the
editors favored these articles.6
Times of crisis could also provoke negative coverage of Sweden.
For example, World War I brought a wave of paranoia about sabo­teurs,
spies, and immigrants. While most hysteria focused on the
Germans, being Swedish-American was something less than "100%
American." Speaking a language other than English was somehow
unpatriotic. The publishers and editors of the Swedish-American
press felt threatened by this. They knew the government was watch­ing
them; it required them to provide translations of their war ar­ticles.
A l l immigrant papers had to seek licenses to continue publish­ing.
7 The safest thing was to adopt a fervently patriotic stand on the
war. When the nativist paranoia fused with the Red Scare, most
Swedish-American papers became passionately anti-Bolshevik.8 In
the immigrant papers, pro-Americanism often equated to hostile
coverage of Sweden.
Back in Sweden, the Foreign Ministry's Press Bureau read these
negative articles with dismay. The bureau's goal was an accurate—
yet flattering—image of Sweden in foreign newspapers. The Foreign
Ministry hoped the Swedish-language press would help develop a
positive Swedish image in America, and founded the Press Bureau
after the 1905 Union Crisis. When Norway seceded from Sweden,
Norway's cause got much more support abroad. The Foreign Minis­try
did not want to let that happen again. In future crises, the Press
Bureau would explain the Swedish position abroad with accurate
Swedish news.9 In the United States, the Press Bureau sought to do
this through the semiofficial American-Swedish News Exchange. This
was set up in 1921, partly to repair the damage the world war had
done to Sweden's image in America. It was literally a news exchange.
It gathered American news for Swedish consumption and Swedish
news for Americans. By 1923 the News Exchange had contracts with
AP, UPI, Canadian Press, and many smaller organizations.1 0 From
32
1948 to 1950, 17,640 articles poured into the New York office.11
The News Exchange selected and provided news articles to the emi­grant
press.
The Swedish-American papers accepted these stories, ran them,
and hardly could have existed without them. Rather than appreciat­ing
these articles, however, they resented them. Many editors saw
these stories as Social Democratic propaganda, churned out by news
bureaucrats.12 Behind the scenes, the immigrant papers engaged in a
bitter private war with the American-Swedish News Exchange and
the Foreign Ministry's Press Bureau.
The Second World War did not unleash the same kind of para­noia.
That came a few years later in the Cold War. Like the Red
Scare, McCarthyism demanded unquestioning patriotism. As in World
War I, the United States again agonized about spies and conspiracies.
America lapsed into extreme conservatism. To be critical of U.S.
policy was to risk being labeled a Communist. Again, it was safer to
be a patriot than a critic.
The Swedish-American press was certainly anti-Communist and
pro-American. This new "100% Americanism" often came at Sweden's
expense. Vestkusten, for example, frequently compared Sweden to
America, with the United States always superior. These comparisons
often came in petty disputes, like comparing Swedish to American
literature. "Modern Swedish poetry is definitely not worth printing,"
wrote V e s t k u s t e n , "and it is worth even less to read in public."1 3
Conservative columnists condemned the folkhem's (Sweden's welfare
system) swollen bureaucracy, secular values, and high taxes. Sweden's
Finance Minister thought the immigrant press exaggerated and twisted
the facts of Sweden's tax structure.1 4 Many immigrant papers be­lieved
the Social Democrats were ruining traditional Swedish moral­ity
and character. Yet, the immigrants zealously defended their old
country against similar criticism from Anglo-Americans. When T i me
called Sweden "The Welfarest State," ruled under "a kind of benevo­lent
despo-socialism," N o r d s t j e r n a n rejected the report as "naive, ri­diculous,
wrong, and thoroughly malicious."15
Nils F. Brown was a professional Swedish-American critic. His
acid columns appeared in conservative papers like N o r d s t j e r n a n and
Svea and radical papers like A r b e t a r e n and F o r u m . Brown belonged
33
to the Socialist Labor Party. This was a small group with a narrow
and purist philosophy of "scientific socialism."1 6 Most of Brown's ar­ticles
criticized American and Swedish society from an SLP position.
Like many professional critics, he was often against more things than
he supported. He was more a critic than a visionary. He fought
everyone on the American left, including Communists and the So­cialist
Party. When he wrote about Sweden, he often targeted the
Social Democrats. Brown thought they were too conservative, intent
on reform under a capitalist system. They abandoned Marxist prin­ciples;
rather than socialist revolution, they sought only high living
standards.17 Brown's criticism of Sweden often needed little rewriting
to fit conservative papers like Nordstjernan.
In the 1940s, Brown targeted the Social Democrats' f o l k h e m , a
Swedish "Great Society." According to Brown, the Social Democrats
had not reduced poverty in Sweden, despite the propaganda to the
contrary. He drove Swedish officials to distraction. They did not like
his "Sweden-hostile articles," which thwarted a positive image for
Sweden. According to some at the Foreign Ministry, Brown was not
completely unsympathetic if one met him in person. In print, "As
soon as he gets a pen in his hand, it's like he gets a thousand devils in
his body."1 8 Swedish officials saw some of his 1953 columns as "the
most disgusting and unbalanced to have appeared in a long time."19
He was "extraordinarily aggressive," frequently "giving free rein to
unprecedented fanaticism."2 0 The Foreign Ministry considered him
as dangerous as an unguided missile.
Brown's 1953 articles were especially caustic. The Foreign Minis­try
had planned to invite five leading Swedish-American journalists
to Stockholm. O n this visit, they would receive awards for their
service from the king. Brown thought that he should receive such an
award, but officials in Sweden made no such overtures, leaving Brown
feeling scandalously ignored.2 1 "Nils F. Brown," said one official, "has
now started a full-scale campaign to get invited to Sweden."2 2 He
solicited letters of support, asking people to encourage the Swedes to
invite him. Some, such as N o r d s t j e r n a n ' s editor, Edgar Swenson, saw
Brown's request as an imposition.2 3 "I refused to do it," Swenson
wrote, "because I don't want to be in any kind of debt of gratitude to
those government boys."2 4 Others gladly joined the campaign. Let-
34
ters singing Brown's praises soon bombarded the Foreign Ministry's
Press Bureau. The Director of the American-Swedish Institute sent a
letter that was typical:
Brown has frequently employed his acutely critical mind to
point out to us new avenues of approach, new directions for
activities that have bogged us down in routine. Even when at
times, he may have been wrong, he has usefully jarred us out
of the complacency to which Swedish-Americans are some­times
subject. He has been stimulating, thought-provoking,
and never lacked the courage to break a lance for the prin­ciples
in which he believes.25
The Foreign Ministry could not have disagreed more. "We stand firm
in our decision not to invite him . . . it is impossible because of
purely economic reasons."26 One suspects there were other reasons.
(In 1958 the Foreign Ministry explicitly refused to invite Svea's editor
to Sweden because of his critical editorials.)27
In the late 1940s and early 1950s Brown became friends with the
Swedish author Vilhelm Moberg. Moberg was in the United States
doing research for his emigration novel series. (The first volume in
this series, The E m i g r a n t s , appeared in 1949). His research led him to
the Swedish-American press, where he met Brown. The two of them
became friends. When critics called U t v a n d r a r n a / T h e E m i g r a n t s ob­scene,
Brown defended Moberg with a positive book review in Svea.28
Meanwhile, Moberg suddenly became increasingly critical of Swed­ish
society and government, possibly from Brown's influence. "Condi­tions
[in Sweden] have recently changed dramatically for the worse,"
Moberg wrote to N o r d s t j e r n a n ' s editor, Edgar Swenson, in 1948. "Free­doms
are limited almost daily with new regulations, people are bitter
and dissatisfied, and we have a government that leads such a mind­less
policy that the nation is threatened by an economic catastro­phe."
2 9 By the early 1950s Moberg was back in Sweden, working for
the Swedish newspaper A r b e t a r e n . According to Moberg, "I have to
be involved in trying to clean up a bit: this place needs the sweep of
a long broom."3 0 This "cleaning-up" turned into Moberg's Rättsrötan
campaign.
35
In one way, Rättsrötan was a simple legal campaign against judi­cial
and state corruption. It was also a call for conservatives and
reformers to clean up what they saw as the folkhem's neo-fascism. The
first two events of Rättsröta were investigations into the so-called
Kejne and Utman Affairs. The most serious event was the Haijby
Affair. In this scandal, Director Kurt Haijby claimed he had a homo­sexual
affair with former King Gustav V in 1932. From 1936 to
1938, Haijby may have extorted as much as 70,000 kronor from the
royal family. In 1938 the courts indicted Haijby on charges of sexual
abuse of a minor. When he escaped that charge, the police had
Haijby committed to a mental institution. In 1939 a doctor found
Haijby mentally sound and he was deported to Nazi Germany. He
returned to Sweden in 1940, and the police again institutionalized
him. When the story began to emerge in 1947, the government
covered it up. Everything about the case was classified as secret and
did not come to the public's attention until 1952, when Haijby was
arrested and put on trial.31
In Sweden, the press handled the case very deliberately and
cautiously. Officials wanted the affair settled as quietly as possible,
out of the press spotlight. Nils Brown learned of the story in February
or March 1952. Brown cabled most or even all the Swedish corre­spondents
in New York, breaking the news. Their reaction to his
cables disappointed Brown. "Only one of them phoned me, and the
poor soul didn't even know what the Haijby Affair was!"32
The Haijby Affair only became common knowledge in Sweden
slowly. More than any other paper, Stockholm's A r b e t a r e n pursued
the story with vigor. Vilhelm Moberg played a leading role in the
investigation. A r b e t a r e n ' s message was that the state apparatus was
bourgeois and corrupt. It also argued that Sweden should abolish the
monarchy.
In the United States, N o r d s t j e r n a n worked hardest to uncover
the truth in the Haijby affair. Editor Edgar Swenson had learned of it
from Nils Brown sometime in early to mid-March 1952.33 Swenson
thought stories like the Haijby Affair "attest to something sick in
Swedish society." The f o l k h e m had certainly brought high cultural
and economic standards, but there was also a darker side behind this
facade. The state had developed a lack of respect for individual
36
rights and freedoms.3 4 In one memorable editorial, Swenson con­demned
Sweden as "embezzlement's, homosexuality's, state and po­lice
brutality's promised land."3 5
The semi-official American-Swedish News Exchange was not as
dynamic in pursuing the Haijby story. In early May 1952 it issued its
first article, "The Swedish Press Discusses the Haijby Affair."3 6 This
report focused more on the press coverage than the affair itself. It
emphasized a Dagens N y h e t e r editorial in which it was said that "full
disclosure will show that the violations which have taken place are of
limited scope, and responsibility rests on only a few people."3 7 The
News Exchange article stressed that the events were unclear and had
occurred long ago.
"If you don't mind me saying so," Nils Brown wrote, "that was
spineless." He had known of the Affair for months, but the News
Exchange and the Swedish media had all silenced it.3 8 N o r d s t j e r n an
surmised the News Exchange could no longer ignore the story, but
now tried to downplay it.3 9 "As far as the News Exchange is con­cerned,"
said Brown, "maybe you're not too much to blame. Perhaps
you had orders from the highest levels that you had to obey."40
Brown implied the News Exchange had obeyed the Royal Palace in
silencing the story.
Brown's letter went to A l l a n Kastrup, the head of the News
Exchange's New York office. Kastrup had managed the New York
Office since 1946, and had turned it into his personal domain. Few
in the News Exchange argued that Kastrup was a good newsman.
According to the Stockholm office, "The simple fact is that Allan is
a damn good editorial writer—and information copy writer—but he
knows nothing about feature material, release items, and news items."41
However, Kastrup was a difficult manager and a combative coworker.
"The greatest trouble I have found is your own negativistic attitude,"
a coworker wrote to Kastrup. "You are a highly undependable man
dealing in all kinds of childish, under-the-table games." Kastrup often
proposed projects, for example, only to condemn them later.42 Col­leagues
have also faulted him for misrepresenting projects that were
not his own.4 3
Allan Kastrup did not know or understand Nils Brown. He did,
however, see him as an enemy of the News Exchange.4 4 Kastrup was
37
certainly not happy with Brown's letter. "With the best possible con­science,
I can assure you that you are one hundred percent wrong."
Kastrup argued that Brown hardly knew the story better than the
News Exchange. The silence was because the News Exchange wanted
the story to become clearer before reporting it abroad.45
Brown disagreed, saying that Swedish-Americans had every right
to know the Haijby story. Brown urged Kastrup to publicize it. If the
News Exchange did not, he would publish it himself.4 6 Kastrup wrote
back, urging Brown not to publish the story. "If, as you sometimes
do, [you] describe Swedish society as more or less rotten, this can be
especially dangerous at the present time."4 7 Brown refused and ac­cused
the News Exchange of betraying its journalistic integrity in
silencing the story.4 8 The letters between Brown and Kastrup dis­solved
into a series of testy accusations. "You can think," Brown
wrote, "that the Hearst newspapers are bad, but they have a lot to
learn from the national Swedish press when it comes to rottenness.
And a lot from the News Exchange."4 9 Relations between Brown and
the News Exchange became positively poisonous by summer 1952.
By this time, the Foreign Ministry considered Brown, Moberg, and
Swenson to be an unholy trio of troublemakers.
The News Exchange released another article in early June.5 0 This
time, Vilhelm Moberg wrote to complain. The article, he argued, was
misleading since it presented only one side in the debate. Only the
voices skeptical of the investigators appeared in it.5 1 After his corre­spondence
with Brown, Kastrup was in a defensive mood. "I was not
especially enthusiastic about the magisterial tone you sometimes used,"
Kastrup wrote back. "You called the News Exchange's report on the
Haijby affair 'misleading' and 'massaged,' which I am forced to say is
completely unjustified." Then, Kastrup noted, "those exact two ex­pressions"
were in a recent N o r d s t j e r n a n editorial. "It may be a coin­cidence,
but can one risk saying that you have put these words in
Edgar [Swenson]'s mouth?"52
Kastrup noted that Moberg's next letter avoided answering this
question.5 3 Instead, Moberg emphasized that N o r d s t j e r n a n only filled
the role the News Exchange had abdicated. Unlike the News Ex­change,
N o r d s t j e r n a n had not given in to pressure to keep quiet. "It is
fortunate there is at least one newspaper in S w e d i s h - A m e r i c a with a
38
courageous, principled, and independent editor. However, he has
been pressured by the newspaper's owner, who in turn may have been
the object of coercion by others."5 4 Kastrup replied, "You could at
least have finished your sentence."55
Kastrup stressed that the News Exchange never contacted
N o r d s t j e r n a n ' s owner about Edgar Swenson's editorials. " A different
issue is whether the owner in question has contacted me," Kastrup
wrote.5 6 The owner thought he might have to dismiss Swenson if he
continued writing about Haijby. Kastrup admitted he disliked some
of Swenson's editorials, but hoped they could avoid dismissing him.
The two of them agreed on that.57
Nordstjernan's owner was George P. Johansen. The Johansen fam­ily
bought the paper in 1875, and George Johansen was the third-generation
owner. Although he owned a Swedish-American paper,
he could not read Swedish. (Swedish-American writers and Foreign
Ministry officials regarded this with ill-disguised contempt.) Person­ally,
Johansen considered the Haijby Affair "a very distasteful sub­ject.
It is, as I see it, completely without any objectivity. In my
humble opinion, it is a mean story. When news digs corpses out of
graves, I want no part of it." It also unnerved him that Brown,
Moberg, and Swenson "have appointed themselves as a committee
of three to drag the late King's name through the mud."5 8 Johansen
told Swenson to drop the Haijby story.59
N o r d s t j e r n a n came under withering criticism back in Sweden.
Svenska D a g b l a d e t described Swenson as reckless, without knowing
the "real situation" in Sweden. Like the Foreign Ministry, Svenska
D a g b l a d e t thought the emigrant papers had a "special responsibility"
in covering Swedish news.6 0 ( N o r d s t j e r n a n dismissed this as a "tearful
appeal to patriotism.")6 1 The next day Dagens N y h e t e r joined the
attack on N o r d s t j e r n a n , when a writer said N o r d s t j e r n a n ' s Haijby sto­ries
"are so thoughtless and (or) simplistic that it is almost disgusting
to find them in a newspaper representing a piece of Sweden's tradi­tions
in the U . S . A . " 6 2 N o r d s t j e r n a n replied that if its reporting dis­gusted
D N , "then the sleazy Swedish 'affairs' that have come to our
attention have shaken and troubled us to our very souls."63
Dagens N y h e t e r reacted most against the charge that it had been
passive on the Haijby story. Unlike Svenska D a g b l a d e t , which claimed
39
it avoided spreading "slander and rumors," Dagens N y h e t e r had de­manded
the Justice Minister release his report on the Affair. Dagens
N y h e t e r pointed out that Svenska Dagbladet had never joined such a
demand. "Can one assert that [the report] is 'slander' or 'rumor­mongering'?"
According to Dagens N y h e t e r , " N o r d s t j e r n a n ' s absurdities
show best what one risks in trying to conceal rather than admit and
account for openly." Cover-ups ultimately only produce hostile press
coverage like N o r d s t j e r n a n ' s . 64
N o r d s t j e r n a n ' s reporting on Haijby quieted down in late 1952.
Instead, its gaze turned to the presidential election and the Catalina
Affair. The only incidents were two articles by Nils Brown. In Svea,
Brown attributed N o r d s t j e r n a n ' s sudden silence to pressure from the
News Exchange.6 5 In N o r d s t j e r n a n , Brown ran an interview with
Vilhelm Moberg. The Seattle paper Svenska Posten rejected the inter­view
as too political. It certainly was.6 6 Perhaps most inflammatory
was a line about "the News Exchange's incredible behavior, attempts
at news suppression, and intrigues against truth-seeking editors." Allan
Kastrup exploded when he read this. He immediately telephoned
Swenson and asked how N o r d s t j e r n a n could print such rubbish.
Swenson blandly said he "checked with Moberg" about the quota­tions,
but said nothing more.67
Just before Christmas (1952), the Swedish courts convicted Haijby
of extortion. It sentenced him to eight years of prison, with hard
labor. Meanwhile, the A t l a n t i c M o n t h l y ran a dubious story that at­tacked
Folke Bernadotte. Rather than a hero, the article portrayed
Bernadotte as reluctant to help Jewish refugees.68 Svenska D a g b l a d et
picked up the A t l a n t i c M o n t h l y article. From there it went back to
New York.6 9 Edgar Swenson included it in his 5 February 1952
edition of N o r d s t j e r n a n . "Through these revelations," Swenson added,
"Bernadotte emerges as . . . an arrogant and meddlesome fraud. . . .
One can hope this British researcher's bomb will explode the sad
Swedish darkness of secrecy so the whole truth can come forward.
These revelations clearly put Bernadotte's murder in a whole new
light—as an understandable, severe act of revenge."70
In reaction to N o r d s t j e r n a n ' s publication of the story, the Swedish
Consul General in New York, Lennart Nylander, sent George P.
Johansen the following telegram:
40
I deeply regret that the editorial on Folke Bernadotte in
today's N o r d s t j e r n a n compels me to voice my deep concern
about the defamation and distrust of the Swedish govern­ment
and the royal family which repeatedly appears in the
paper. To supply the Swedish-American readers with endorse­ments
of loose, unverified statements and erratic conclusions
undermining their respect for Sweden is certainly not a con­structive
policy and conforms in no way with your newspaper's
longstanding traditions and noble aims of strengthening good­will
between Swedes and Swedish-Americans. Being a close
friend and collaborator of Folke Bernadotte's in Berlin during
the closing period of the Second World War, I know from
my own experiences that article on which the editorial is
based to be in important parts untrue.71
George Johansen was furious. "I cannot understand how," he
wrote to Swenson, " i n light of my very explicit instructions and
orders to you that I want no nasty or controversial subjects involving
the Royal House touched upon in N o r d s t j e r n a n , you would run such
a diatribe on Folke Bernadotte. My orders could leave no question as
to my desires."72 While Johansen did not know Gustav V, he knew
Folke Bernadotte well. He had met Bernadotte several times, includ­ing
at a New York reception that he organized. Johansen eventually
came to consider him a friend.7 3 Johansen demanded a "report as to
why my orders have again been disregarded." He then warned, "I
want nothing in the coming issue of N o r d s t j e r n a n on the Bernadotte
story. . . . You must fall in line with my thinking."7 4
"You must fall in line with my thinking"? That a publisher could
give an editor such an order shocked Vilhelm Moberg and Nils
Brown. "That's Goebbels' voice," Moberg told Swenson. "Joseph
Goebbels has risen from the grave and is now walking in America!"
Moberg urged Swenson to continue to defy such pressure.75
The fallout from the Bernadotte story came from other quarters
as well. Svenska D a g b l a d e t condemned the editorial, "which in mat­ters
of vulgarity beats all records."76 Dagens N y h e t e r was equally criti­cal.
7 7 N o r d s t j e r n a n ' s advertisers also disliked the story. The Advertis-
41
ing Distributors of America urged him to stop the articles, not to
"add to the damage already done." Although he had promised to
follow up the story, "This must not be. To glorify the thing by reply
and counter-reply can only result in further damage to our standing
in Sweden. We cannot and should not do it. Drop this hot potato as
it is."78
Swenson did not think he could do that. A professional journal­ist
should be free of political commitments and outside pressures.
Journalists must resist pressure from government, other political ac­tors,
and advertisers. They must even ignore pressure from the news­paper
itself as an institution with its own economic interests.79 To
submit to Johansen or the advertisers' pressure would have been
professionally dishonest. Swenson saw himself as "the editor of an
organ for the free flow of news in America." To surrender N o r d s t j e r n a n 's
independence would "mean a complete suppression of the free press."80
By this point, Swenson was getting news on Haijby from the Associ­ated
Press and the Hearst press.81 He printed an editorial and a letter
on Haijby in N o r d s t j e r n a n ' s 19 February 1952 issue. "I'm sure that
any honest journalist would have done exactly the same thing."82
Johansen was not pleased. "We have come so far apart that the
only course open to me is to accept your resignation as Managing
Editor of N o r d s t j e r n a n , " he told Swenson. Until recently, Johansen
felt "you were only being overzealous in the wrong direction. I did
not anticipate your complete disregard of any direct order that I
would give you. That I cannot tolerate." Johansen promoted the
City Editor, Gerry Rooth, to head editor. Rooth was also "ordered to
remove any article that mentions the controversial Bernadotte story."83
The firing was a bombshell on Swedish America. Swenson had
edited N o r d s t j e r n a n since 1933 and was among the most respected of
Swedish-American editors. To many readers, he was N o r d s t j e r n a n.
Like many, Brown believed Lennart Nylander's telegram had led to
Swenson's dismissal. (Nylander never suggested firing Swenson;
Johansen pointed out that it " in no way influenced my thinking.")84
The popular feeling was that Johansen had bowed to pressure from
the Foreign Ministry in Sweden. "You should feel proud," Brown told
the Swedes, "that you have succeeded in destroying Swedish-America's
best newspaper."85
42
Brown added, "It is unprecedented that a foreign state's represen­tative
would interfere in the Swedish-American press's activities and
try to force them into a cover-up and other fascist journalism."86
Swenson wondered why Nylander had the right to monitor what
appeared in American newspapers. If Nylander objected to
N o r d s t j e r n a n ' s editorials, he should have contacted the editor, not the
owner. Contacting the owner was inappropriate and amounted to
improper government pressure on the press.87 Swenson thought the
Foreign Ministry did not understand that the Swedish-American press
was an American press. Swedish was only its language of publica­t
i o n . 8 8
Among themselves, the ministry officials agreed with Swenson.
They felt he should have had the right to decide N o r d s t j e r n a n ' s con­tent,
free from outside pressure.89 When they replied to Swenson,
however, they completely backed Nylander's actions. As Consul,
Nylander's job was to ensure that only accurate information on Swe­den
appeared in the press. If a paper carried false or misleading
information in the news, he was to contact its chefredaktör (managing
editor). Nylander turned to Johansen, thinking that N o r d s t j e r n a n 's
"publisher" was the American equivalent of chefredaktör. Whatever
happened afterward was a purely internal matter at N o r d s t j e r n a n . 90
If the Swedish Foreign Ministry hoped this turn of events at
N o r d s t j e r n a n would contain a widening scandal, it was wrong. Nils
Brown went berserk. To think that a publisher was the same as an
editor was "the height of dishonesty." They were not that dumb; it
was just another of the Foreign Ministry's "dirty intrigues."9 1 " A l l
decent Swedes who know you," Brown told Nylander, "consider you
a filthy bastard and a lying, vile scoundrel, who well represents the
utterly rotten Swedish f o l k h e m , but is a shame for the old, honest
Sweden."9 2
Vilhelm Moberg had little direct influence over N o r d s t j e r n a n , but
undertook a symbolic protest. He wrote N o r d s t j e r n a n to demand it
immediately stop printing his novel, The Clenched Hands. "I gave the
rights to this serial to editor Swenson as a purely personal gift. Since
editor Swenson has left the paper—his tenure as editor was a clear
condition for this gift—this right no longer applies."9 3 N o r d s t j e r n an
pulled Moberg's serial. It said that people did not have enough time
43
during the summer to read such literature.9 4 It was a paper-thin
explanation.
The war over N o r d s t j e r n a n was badly hurting the morale of the
paper's staff. Swenson's friends at N o r d s t j e r n a n said the place was
desolate and empty without him. The office felt bare now that his
things were gone and his pictures were down from the walls.9 5 The
typesetting personnel considered a sympathy strike to bring Swenson
back. Johansen avoided this by agreeing to meet with Swenson to
discuss all issues, including a possible reinstatement.96
On 4 March Edgar Swenson got in the mail what he thought was
George Johansen's capitulation. "He's coming crawling to Canossa,"
Swenson thought. Johansen wrote:
Perhaps rather than writing more notes, the best thing for us
to do is to meet in person as two old friends with a problem
to discuss. Why not call me (I don't have any phone number
for your home) and we will set a day and time next week
that is possible for both of us. This week is a bit more than
tight. I'm sure that I feel worse than you do about the differ­ences
that have come between us during the past month and
year.
Sincerely, George.
PS—Your weekly [pay] check is enclosed to reach you as
usual on Wednesday.97
Johansen unexpectedly offered to pay Swenson's salary for six
weeks. Contrary to what Johansen said, Swenson's name was indeed
in the phone book. Swenson assumed that Johansen was merely
afraid to call.98
Swenson did not call Johansen. If Johansen wanted to have a
meeting, he would have to call and arrange it himself.9 9 There was
still great tension between the two men. After two weeks, Johansen
had not replied. Gerry Rooth sent a note offering to call when
Johansen was ready, but Swenson never heard from him. Swenson
began to think that Rooth was deliberately stalling, working to pre­vent
a reconciliation.1 0 0 Swenson and Johansen finally met for lunch
44
in early April 1953. It was not a reconciliation, and neither man
came crawling to Canossa. According to Swenson, Johansen repeat­edly
emphasized that he was "the boss" and decided what appeared
in N o r d s t j e r n a n . 1 0 1 According to Johansen, "We discussed with ut­most
frankness the entire situation and parted in a very friendly way."
It was agreed that he would call Gerry Rooth and straighten
himself out with Gerry and clear a misunderstanding that has
arisen between them. Unfortunately, Edgar must have either
misunderstood or didn't want to contact Gerry. They did not
meet. The last I heard was that Edgar plans to go over [to
Sweden] and that Moberg will go at the same time.1 02
Swenson decided to take his case to Sweden. He gave up his
apartment in New York, finished up his current projects, and cleared
his calendar. He planned to tour Sweden with Vilhelm Moberg and
Nils Brown for four to six months.1 03
The Foreign Ministry watched with apprehension as Nils Brown
boarded a ship to Sweden. He arrived in Göteborg on 1 April 1953.1 04
While there, Brown told local reporters that Edgar Swenson "lost his
job because of unpleasant writing about the Haijby case." He added
that Swenson would be coming to Sweden in two weeks.1 0 5 This was
exactly what Swenson instructed Brown to say. Brown would "give a
little hint about the scandal . . . thus awakening curiosity and prepar­ing
the ground for our arrival."1 0 6
Many feared that Moberg, Swenson, and Brown planned a nasty
publicity campaign against the Swedish state.1 0 7 Edgar Swenson ar­rived
in Stockholm on 23 April, and Vilhelm Moberg met him at the
airport.1 0 8 They immediately held a press conference, at which Swenson
gave reporters copies of Johansen's 6 February letter. This letter in­cluded
Nylander's telegram. Swenson also brought the Foreign
Ministry's letter with the foolishly implausible defense that "pub­lisher"
equaled chefredaktör.109
Moberg and Brown planned this as a campaign to vindicate
Edgar Swenson before the Swedish press. "You can be sure that all
Sweden's decent newspapers will come to your side when they dis­cover
what's happened," Moberg told Swenson. " A letter like the
45
one George sent you is an insult to all the world's newsmen!"1 1 0
While they were in Sweden, Brown contacted George Johansen and
offered to buy N o r d s t j e r n a n . Edgar Swenson had also asked about
purchasing the paper. Neither man was rich enough to buy
N o r d s t j e r n a n , so it is possible that they asked Vilhelm Moberg to
back the sale. This was what Consul Lennart Nylander suspected,
and he may have been right.1 1 1 While the episode had hurt N o r d s t j e r n an
financially, Johansen was not willing to sell. In any case, Johansen did
not want N o r d s t j e r n a n to go to Swenson, Brown, and Moberg. He
would rather see the paper close than become part of an ugly owner­ship
battle.1 12
If there was a publicity campaign, it was largely one of rumors.
Nils Brown told a reporter from Göteborg's H a n d e l s t i d n i n g "that Moberg
and Edgar have planned to ask the U.S. State Department to stop
the Swedish-American News Exchange."1 1 3 Brown also told the For­eign
Ministry that he had written proof—letters from A l l a n Kastrup—
that the News Exchange had tried to silence and "ruin" the Swedish-
American press.1 1 4 This may have been little more than a scare
tactic. "Our State Department does not stick its neck out too far,"
George Johansen noted. "However, it is possible that Edgar and
Moberg might try to start something against the News Exchange.
Edgar is not and has not been friendly to them for a long time."1 15
The Swedish government may have struck back with a rumor of
its own. There were soon reports that Brown had returned to Sweden
only to exploit the Swedish pension system.1 1 6 Brown denied the
story. He told a journalist that his son had moved to Sweden and
encouraged him to do the same.1 1 7 It is unlikely he meant to do this.
Brown's "Reports from the F o l k h e m , " which appeared in Svea, were
again acidly critical of Swedish society and government. Sweden,
Brown repeated, was "a decadent country," and its people were "worse"
now than fifty years earlier. Corruption was a terrible problem, and
everything from banking to housing was awash in bureaucratic red
tape.1 1 8
The Foreign Ministry reacted swiftly. Ambassador Eric Boheman
had recommended silence on Brown, Swenson, and the N o r d s t j e r n an
episode.1 1 9 A t the same time, he decided to visit Worcester, Massa­chusetts—
a place rarely visited by ambassadors. Worcester was where
46
Brown's current newspaper, Svea, was published. It was the only
paper to print Brown's articles on Edgar Swenson's dismissal from
N o r d s t j e r n a n . V e s t k u s t e n and C a n a d a - T i d n i n g received similar articles
on Swenson's firing but did not print them. "Their publishers perhaps
got orders from the Foreign Ministry," Brown wrote to Moberg.1 20
While visiting Worcester, Boheman publicly criticized Nils Brown's
articles, and his comments carried with them an indirect criticism of
Svea for publishing them. He called the stories "superficial, unfair,
and malicious," but did not identify the author. In covering the
speech, Dagens N y h e t e r identified Brown as the ambassador's tar­get.
1 2 1 "That's Sven Öste's work," Brown noted.1 2 2 Dagens N y h e t er
could only have learned Brown's identity through its New York cor­respondent,
Sven Öste.
Brown stormed up to Herbert Tingsten, Dagens N y h e t e r ' s editor,
and demanded the right to reply to "Boheman and his traffic of lies."
Tingsten refused. According to Swedish law, a newspaper has no
obligation to allow a rebuttal.1 2 3 Angrily, Brown complained to Moberg
about "decadence and fascism" in Sweden.1 2 4 Brown had to settle for
a response in Svea. There he delivered a salvo against not only
Dagens N y h e t e r , but Sweden's radio, morality, housing, racism, social
divisions, and sanitation as well.1 2 5 He described Sweden as "a dismal
desert of stone," and "an incredibly entangled and uncomfortable
country." Swedish women could not walk alone without being ha­rassed,
and society was rife with "moral, social, and literary deca­dence."
1 2 6
Boheman's appearance in Worcester may have led Svea's publish­ers
to have second thoughts about Brown's tirades. In a few months,
his political columns completely disappeared from the paper's pages.
While he still wrote book reviews and occasional items on the ethnic
press, acid criticism of Sweden was now in the past.1 2 7 Still, the
Foreign Ministry remembered Svea's activities during the Haijby Af­fair.
When officials there considered holding a Swedish-American
editors' meeting in 1958, they did not invite Svea's editor. Henning
Nelson's Haijby-related editorials made him "a particularly unsuit­able
guest." According to the ministry, Svea had disparaged Sweden,
the embassy, and the Swedish government. Worse still, Svea ran Nils
Brown's articles on Haijby.1 28
47
In early May 1953, Consul Lennart Nylander thanked everyone
at the Foreign Ministry for their "effective intervention in the contro­versy
around N o r d s t j e r n a n . " Apart from a few polemics by Brown,
Moberg, and Swenson, he expected the issue would soon die down.1 29
Although angry letters from Moberg and Brown continued to come
in, Ministry officials agreed to ignore them.1 3 0 There was nothing
more they could do.
Svea had already dropped Brown's articles. The militant
N o r d s t j e r n a n was now tame, and " N o r d s t j e r n a n ' s father complex" against
Sweden was gone.1 3 1 Gerry Rooth had become the paper's editor on
the condition that he avoid controversy, which he did. Aggressive
Swedish-American reporting disappeared from N o r d s t j e r n a n ' s pages.
Vilhelm Moberg asked, "Has N o r d s t j e r n a n ceased to be a news or­gan?"
1 3 2
The answer was yes. N o r d s t j e r n a n and Svea had taken the first
steps toward becoming archaic cultural objects rather than living
news organs. The emigrant papers slowly became what the Foreign
Ministry wanted them to be: part of the Swedish publicity service in
America. (Edgar Swenson commented that his old paper was quickly
becoming "a plate-licking and royalty-fawning rag. It is now edited
almost entirely from Rockefeller Center and Park Avenue and Swe­den.")
1 3 3 The Haijby Affair may have been the emigrant editors' last
failed attempt to resist this trend. From 1953 onward they could no
longer resist the growing influence of the hidden state structure be­hind
their newspapers. They increasingly depended on the Foreign
Ministry's Press Bureau and the News Exchange, and they soon would
depend on S v e r i g e - N y t t , the Swedish-International Press Bureau, and
the Swedish Information Service. The editors could accept this help,
or they could wind up like Edgar Swenson.
Most documents relating to this episode come from the Foreign
Ministry's Press Bureau archives. As one might expect, these papers
depict the ministry and the News Exchange as sensible, prudent
actors. A l l a n Kastrup, in M e d S v e r i g e i A m e r i k a , also sanitizes the
Foreign Ministry's and the News Exchange's roles in Swenson's dis­missal.
1 3 4 Yet there are several points where the written evidence is
unclear or contradictory.
First, did Lennart Nylander try to reach Edgar Swenson before
48
going to N o r d s t j e r n a n ' s owner? For his part, Nylander claims he con­tacted
Johansen because Swenson was unresponsive.1 3 5 The Foreign
Ministry said Nylander only wanted to write a rebuttal to Swenson's
editorial. According to Swenson, N o r d s t j e r n a n would have printed
Nylander's reply. Yet Swenson says that Nylander never contacted
him.1 3 6 Allan Kastrup's testimony is equivocal. He says that it was
difficult to reach Swenson, but Swenson was "a hermit" who rarely
left N o r d s t j e r n a n . 1 3 7 In any case, N o r d s t j e r n a n never printed a rebut­tal,
and there is no evidence that suggests Nylander wrote one.1 38
Second, was N o r d s t j e r n a n for sale? In one respect, George P.
Johansen was the last casualty of the Haijby Affair. His decision to
fire Swenson was not popular and cost N o r d s t j e r n a n many loyal sub­scribers.
The paper's subscription decline forced Johansen to sell the
newspaper in August 1954.1 3 9 But why did Johansen refuse to sell in
April 1953? Brown, Swenson, and Moberg were eager buyers at the
time. They likely commanded much more capital than Gerry Rooth
had in 1954. The Foreign Ministry's files are strangely silent on this
point, although one can assume that officials there would have disap­proved
of the sale. It could be that they registered this disapproval in
some way with George Johansen.
ENDNOTES
1. Michael Sjöström, "Sverigebilden i de två svensk-amerikanska tidningar
Arbetaren och Nordstjernan år 1914" (Adviser: Lars Ljungmark), B-paper, history
department, Göteborg University, H T 1995: 7, 9.
2. Vilhelm Berger, cited in Ulf Jonas Björk, "The Immigrant Press," Swenson
C e n t e r N e w s , no. 14 (2000): 4.
3. Björk, "The Immigrant Press."
4. Quote from Per Pehrsson and Adrian Molin's "more emigration" argu­ment
from The Swedish-American Press: Three Newspapers and Their C o m m u n i t i e s,
by Ulf Jonas Björk (Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms International,
1987), 92-93.
5. Svensk-Amerikanska Pressutredningen, Utvandrarnas tidningar: Betänkande
(Stockholm: The Swedish Foreign Ministry, 1971), 20.
6. Björk, "The Immigrant Press." See also Björk, The Swedish-American Press,
94-95.
7. Marion Tuttle Marzolf, "The Danish Immigrant Newspaper: O l d Friend
in a New Land," in From Scandinavia to America: Proceedings from a Conference
49
held at Gl. Holtegaard, Odense University Studies in History and Social Sciences,
vol. 103 (Odense: Odense University Press, 1987), 299, 310.
8. Finis Herbert Capps, From Isolation to Involvement: The Swedish I m m i g r a nt
Press in America, 1914-1945 (Chicago: Swedish Pioneer Historical Society, 1966),
208.
9. Herman Gyllenhaal, "UD:s Pressbyrå 90 år," U D - K u r i r e n , nr. 2 (April
1999): 5. For a more complete discussion of U D Pressbyrån's origins, see Sven
Eriksson, "Utrikespolitiken och pressen: Till frågan om utrikesdepartementets
pressbyråns tillkomst," Svenska Tidskriften, no. 10 (1955): 547-56.
10. A l l a n Kastrup, Med Sverige i Amerika: Opinioner, stämningar och
upplysningarbete—en rapport av A l l a n Kastrup (Malmö: Corona, 1985), 35.
11. Redogörelse för Svensk-Amerikanska Nyhetsbyråns Verksamhet, 1948-1950
(Stockholm: Svenska-Amerikanska Nyhetsbyrån, 1950), 28.
12. U l f Jonas Björk, " A Swedish-American View of Sweden: The Journal­ism
of Nils F. Brown, 1910-1953," Swedish-American Historical Q u a r t e r l y 44, no.
1 (January 1993): 29-30. See also Svea, 26 June 1952, p. 4, and "Titt bakom
svenska kulisserna," Svea, 11 June 1953.
13. Vestkusten, 15 June 1950, quoted in Anders-Petter Sjödin, "Etnocitet
eller assimilation i 'liberala' Vestkusten," unpublished C-paper, history depart­ment,
Uppsala University, 6 October 1980, 22, 28.
14. A l l a n Kastrup, "Utdrag ur memorandum, p. 100-," probably written
1980, Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center, Augustana College,
American Swedish News Exchange (Allan Kastrup) files, box " A S N E : Allan
Kastrup, Personal Papers," file " A S N E : Papers Relating to the Activities of the
American-Swedish News Exchange," 4. This is likely a deleted extract from
Kastrup's unpublished manuscript, "Upplysning om Sverige i Nordamerika: genom
svensk-amerikanska nyhetsbyrån," April 1980 ("Personligt—ej publicering i någon
form"), file "Pressen och telegram—och nyhetsbyråer i Sverige samt
nyhetsförmedling—Svensk-amerikanska pressen, 1978-01-01-1982-04-30," U D
Pressbyrån archives, Swedish Foreign Ministry, Stockholm.
15. "Sweden: The Well-Stocked Cellar," Time, 31 December 1951; Edgar
Swenson, "Det 'tråkiga' Sverige," Nordstjernan, 17 January 1952, p. 4.
16. U l f Jonas Björk, "Swedish Ethnicity and Labor Socialism in the Work of
Nils F:son Brown, 1919-1928," H i s t o r i a n 59, no. 4 (Summer 1997): 764.
17. Björk, " A Swedish-American View of Sweden," 28.
18. Kastrup, Med Sverige i Amerika, 201.
19. Letter from Sven Backlund (Embassy Washington) to Olof Rydbeck
(head of U D Pressbyrån), 10 July 1953, file "Svensk-amerikanska press 1950
Okt-1953," volume S4, box 1:461, U D Pressbyrån collection, Riksarkivet,
Stockholm. One of the two articles is Nils F. Brown, " 'Sverige är ett dekadent
land,' sa Nisse Brown," Svenska Posten, 1 July 1953. .
50
20. Memo by A l l a n Kastrup, "Ang. Haijbyaffären m.m. i Amerika," 16
April 1953, 2, file "Svensk-amerikanska press 1950 Okt-1953," volume S4,
box 1:461, U D Pressbyrån collection, Riksarkivet, Stockholm.
21. Kastrup, Med Sverige i Amerika, 201.
22. Letter from Olof Rydbeck (head of U D Pressbyrån) to Sven Backlund
(Embassy Washington), 30 January 1953, file "Korrespondens med U D , amb,
och konsulat 1949-1958," box A:26, Svensk-Amerikanska Nyhetsbyrån collec­tion,
Riksarkivet, Arninge.
23. Letter from Edgar Swenson to Vilhelm Moberg, 13 January 1953, file
"Brev till Vilhelm Moberg: Sva-Sven," Vilhelm Moberg collection, Kungliga
Biblioteket, Stockholm.
24. Letter from Edgar Swenson to Vilhelm Moberg, 6 February 1953, file
"Brev till Vilhelm Moberg: Svan-Edgar Swenson," L 172:1, Vilhelm Moberg
collection, Kungliga Biblioteket, Stockholm.
25. Letter from Nils G . Sahlin (Director American Swedish Institute) to
Gösta L. S. af Petersén (First Secretary U D ) , 16 January 1953, file "Svensk­amerikanska
press 1950 Okt-1953," volume S4, box 1:461, U D Pressbyrån col­lection,
Riksarkivet, Stockholm.
26. Letter from Olof Rydbeck (head of U D Pressbyrån) to Sven Backlund
(Embassy Washington), 30 January 1953, file "Korrespondens med U D , amb,
och konsulat 1949-1958," box A:26, Svensk-Amerikanska Nyhetsbyrån collec­tion,
Riksarkivet, Arninge.
27. Letter from Sven Backlund (Embassy Washington) to Kjell Öberg (head
of College for Swedish Information Abroad), 22 December 1958, file "Svensk­amerikanska
press 1954-1959," volume S4, box 1:461, U D Pressbyrån collec­tion,
Riksarkivet, Stockholm.
28. Svea, 8 December 1949; Björk, " A Swedish-American View of Swe-den,"
29.
29. Letter from Vilhelm Moberg to Edgar Swenson, late 1948, cited in
Kastrup, Med Sverige i Amerika, 199.
30. Letter from Vilhelm Moberg to A l l a n Kastrup, November 1950, cited
in Kastrup, Med Sverige i Amerika, 200.
31. For information on the Haijby Affair, see Maths Heuman, Rättsaffärerna
Kejne och Haijby (Stockholm: P. A . Norstedt &. Söners förlag, 1978), 241-308.
Vilhelm Moberg, A t t övervaka överheten (Stockholm: Bonniers, 1953), 155-91.
Henning Sjöström, Dramat om Haijby: En vitbok i Haijbyaffären (Stockholm:
Wahlström & Widstrand, 1954).
32. Nils F. Brown, quoted in memo by A l l a n Kastrup, "Ang. Haijbyaffären
m.m. i Amerika," 16 April 1953, 2, file "Svensk-amerikanska press 1950 O k t -
1953," volume S4, box 1:461, U D Pressbyrån collection, Riksarkivet, Stockholm.
33. Letter from Nils F. Brown to Vilhelm Moberg, 31 March 1952, file
51
"Brev till Vilhelm Moberg: A - B r u , " L 172:1, Vilhelm Moberg collection, Kungliga
Biblioteket, Stockholm.
34. Edgar Swenson, "Rättshotet i kollektiv-Sverige," Nordstjernan, 22 May
1952, p. 4.
35. Edgar Swenson, "Rättsröta och Pressröta," Nordstjernan, 8 May 1952, p.
6. Swenson repeats this charge in " V i trampar i det svenska ormboet," Nordstjernan,
5 June 1952, 6.
36. "Svensk press diskuterar 'Haijbyaffären': Dagens Nyheter: Offentlighet
skulle belysa dess begränsade omfattning," American Swedish News Exchange, 6
May 1952.
37. Dagens Nyheter, 4 May 1952, quoted ibid.
38. Letter from Nils F. Brown to A l l a n Kastrup, 13 May 1952, quoted in
Kastrup, "Ang. Haijbyaffären m.m. i Amerika."
39. Swenson, "Rättshotet i kollektiv-Sverige," p. 6.
40. Letter from Nils F. Brown to A l l a n Kastrup, 13 May 1952.
41. Letter from Ellis I. Folke to Lars Malmström, 25 January 1960, file
"Korrespondens med New York kontoret 1959-1960," box A:16, Svensk-
Amerikanska Nyhetsbyrån collection, Riksarkivet, Arninge.
42. Letter from Ellis I. Folke to A l l a n Kastrup, 14 December 1959, file
"Korrespondens med A l l a n Kastrup 1957-1959," box A:21, Svensk-Amerikanska
Nyhetsbyrån collection, Riksarkivet, Arninge.
43. For example, the News Exchange decided to reorganize its news service
to the Swedish-American press in 1959. Although the News Service was greatly
intensifying its service, Kastrup told the Swedish-American editors "there would
now be a drastic reduction in our service to them." In Stockholm, Ellis Folke
was "flabbergasted at Allen's reaction" to the reorganization. Letter from Ellis I.
Folke to Olov Ternström (Embassy Washington), 18 September 1959, file
"Korrespondens med U D , amb., och konsulat 1959-1960," box A:26, Svensk-
Amerikanska Nyhetsbyrån collection, Riksarkivet, Arninge.
44. Kastrup, "Ang. Haijbyaffären m.m. i Amerika."
45. Letter from A l l a n Kastrup to Nils Brown, 19 May 1952, quoted in
Kastrup, "Ang. Haijbyaffären m.m. i Amerika."
46. Letter from Nils F. Brown to A l l a n Kastrup, 21 May 1952, quoted in
Kastrup, "Ang. Haijbyaffären m.m. i Amerika."
47. Letter from A l l a n Kastrup to Nils Brown, 29 May 1952, quoted in
Kastrup, "Ang. Haijbyaffären m.m. i Amerika."
48. Letter from Nils F. Brown to A l l a n Kastrup, 31 May 1952, quoted in
Kastrup, "Ang. Haijbyaffären m.m. i Amerika."
49. Letter from Nils F. Brown to A l l a n Kastrup, 2 June 1952, quoted in
Kastrup, "Ang. Haijbyaffären m.m. i Amerika."
50. "Offentlighet i Haijbyaffären: De anklagade ämbetsmännen fritas från
52
lagstridiga övergrepp men anses av flera tidningar ha visat mycket dåliga omdöme,"
A m e r i c a n Swedish News Exchange, 5 June 1952.
51. Letter from Vilhelm Moberg to A l l a n Kastrup, 10 June 1952, quoted in
Kastrup, "Ang. Haijbyaffären m.m. i Amerika."
52. Letter from A l l a n Kastrup to Vilhelm Moberg, 13 or 14 June 1952,
quoted in Kastrup, "Ang. Haijbyaffären m.m. i Amerika." See also Edgar Swenson,
"Mörkläggningens straff," Nordstjernan, 12 June 1952, p. 6.
53. Letter from A l l a n Kastrup to Vilhelm Moberg, 19 June 1952, quoted in
Kastrup, "Ang. Haijbyaffären m.m. i Amerika."
54. Underlined in original. Letter from Vilhelm Moberg to A l l a n Kastrup,
17 June 1952, quoted in Kastrup, "Ang. Haijbyaffären m.m. i Amerika."
55. Letter from A l l a n Kastrup to Vilhelm Moberg, 19 June 1952, quoted in
Kastrup, "Ang. Haijbyaffären m.m. i Amerika."
56. Letter from A l l a n Kastrup to Vilhelm Moberg, 19 June 1952, quoted in
Kastrup, "Ang. Haijbyaffären m.m. i Amerika."
57. Letter from A l l a n Kastrup to Vilhelm Moberg, 19 June 1952, quoted in
Kastrup, "Ang. Haijbyaffären m.m. i Amerika."
58. Letter from George P. Johansen to Lasse Widehag (reporter for Göteborg's
Handelstidning) 8 A p r i l 1953, file "Svensk-amerikanska press 1950 Okt-1953,"
volume S4, box 1:461, U D Pressbyrån collection, Riksarkivet, Stockholm.
59. Letter from Edgar Swenson to U D , 20 April 1953, file "Svensk­amerikanska
press 1950 Okt-1953," volume S4, box 1:461, U D Pressbyrån col­lection,
Riksarkivet, Stockholm. Copy also in file "Korrespondens med U D ,
amb, och konsulat 1949-1958," box A:26, Swedish-American News Exchange
collection, Riksarkivet, Arninge.
60. " 'Rättsrötan' inför utlandet," Svenska Dagbladet, 24 May 1952, p. 4.
61. Edgar Swenson, " V i trampar i det svenska ormboet," Nordstjernan, 5
June 1952, p. 4.
62. Herbert Tingsten, "Fariséer i polemik," Dagens Nyheter, 25 May 1952, p.
2.
63. Swenson, " V i trampar i det svenska ormboet."
64. Tingsten, "Fariséer i polemik."
65. Nils F. Brown in interview with Vilhelm Moberg, Nordstjernan, 16 Oc­tober
1952. Also quoted in Kastrup, "Ang. Haijbyaffären m.m. i Amerika."
66. Letter from Nils F. Brown to Vilhelm Moberg, 11 October 1952, file
"Brev till Vilhelm Moberg från olika personer A - J , " L 144:1a Tillägg, Vilhelm
Moberg collection, Kungliga Biblioteket, Stockholm.
67. Nils F. Brown in interview with Vilhelm Moberg, Nordstjernan, 16 Oc­tober
1952.
68. H . R. Trevor-Roper, "Kersten, Himmler, and Count Bernadotte," The
A t l a n t i c M o n t h l y 191, no. 2 (1953): 43-45.
53
69. "Kring Folke Bernadotte," Svenska Dagbladet, 30 January 1953.
70. Edgar Swenson, Nordstjernan, 5 February 1952; also reprinted in Svenska
Dagbladet, 12 February 1953, p. 4.
71. Telegram from Lennart Nylander, quoted in full in letter from George P.
Johansen to Edgar Swenson, 6 February 1953, file "Svensk-amerikanska press
1950 Okt-1953," volume S4, box 1:461, U D Pressbyrån collection, Riksarkivet,
Stockholm.
72. Letter from George P. Johansen to Edgar Swenson, 6 February 1953.
73. Letter from George P. Johansen to Countess Bernadotte, 16 March 1953,
file "Svensk-amerikanska press 1950 Okt-1953," volume S4, box 1:461, U D
Pressbyrån collection, Riksarkivet, Stockholm. See also Johansen's letter to Edgar
Swenson, 6 February 1953.
74. Letter from George P. Johansen to Edgar Swenson, 6 February 1953.
75. Letter from Vilhelm Moberg to Edgar Swenson, 31 March 1953, file
"Brev från Vilhelm Moberg," L 172:2, Vilhelm Moberg collection, Kungliga
Biblioteket, Stockholm.
76. Svenska Dagbladet, 12 February 1953, p. 4.
77. The Dagens Nyheter editorial is said to be in the 11 February 1952 issue,
but I cannot find it.
78. Letter from an Advertising Distributors of America spokesman (illegible
signature) to Edgar Swenson, 16 February 1953, file "Svensk-amerikanska press
1950 Okt-1953," volume S4, box 1:461, U D Pressbyrån collection, Riksarkivet,
Stockholm. See also Johansen's letter to Edgar Swenson, 6 February 1953.
79. Daniel C . Hallin, The "Uncensored War": The Media and Vietnam (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1986), 68.
80. Letter from Edgar Swenson to U D , 20 April 1953.
81. Letter from Edgar Swenson to Vilhelm Moberg, 28 February 1953, file
"Brev till Vilhelm Moberg: Svan-Edgar Swenson," L 172:1, Vilhelm Moberg
collection, Kungliga Biblioteket, Stockholm.
82. Letter from Edgar Swenson to U D , 20 A p r i l 1953.
83. Letter from George P. Johansen to Edgar Swenson, 24 February 1953,
file "Svensk-amerikanska press 1950 Okt-1953," volume S4, box 1:461, U D
Pressbyrån collection, Riksarkivet, Stockholm.
84. Letter from George P. Johansen to Lasse Widehag, 8 A p r i l 1953.
85. Letter from Nils F. Brown to Olof Rydbeck (head U D Press Bureau), 1
May 1953, file "Svensk-amerikanska press 1950 Okt-1953," volume S4, box
1:461, U D Pressbyrån collection, Riksarkivet, Stockholm. Copy also in file
"Korrespondens med U D , amb, och konsulat 1949-1958," box A:26, Swedish-
American News Exchange collection, Riksarkivet, Arninge.
86. Ibid.
87. Letter from Edgar Swenson to U D , 20 April 1953.
54
88. Letter from Edgar Swenson to Vilhelm Moberg, 28 February 1953.
89. Letter from Olof Rydbeck (head U D Press Bureau) to Mac Lindahl
(ASNE Stockholm), 25 April 1953, file "Korrespondens med U D , amb, och
konsulat 1949-1958," box A:26, Swedish-American News Exchange collection,
Riksarkivet, Arninge.
90. Letter from Olof Rydbeck (head U D Press Bureau) to Edgar Swenson,
24 April 1953, file "Svensk-amerikanska press 1950 Okt-1953," volume S4,
box 1:461, U D Pressbyrån collection, Riksarkivet, Stockholm.
91. Letter from Nils F. Brown to Olof Rydbeck, 1 May 1953.
92. Letter from Nils F. Brown to Lennart Nylander, 26 December 1954, file
"Svensk-amerikanska pressen 1954-1959," volume S4, box 1:461, U D Pressbyrån
collection, Riksarkivet, Stockholm.
93. Letter from Vilhelm Moberg to Nordstjernan, 31 March 1953, file "Svensk­amerikanska
press 1950 Okt-1953," volume S4, box 1:461, U D Pressbyrån col­lection,
Riksarkivet, Stockholm. Copy exists in file "Brev från Vilhelm Moberg,"
Vilhelm Moberg collection, Kungliga Biblioteket, Stockholm.
94- Letter from Edgar Swenson to Vilhelm Moberg, 26 October 1953, file
"Brev till Vilhelm Moberg från olika personer K-Ö," L 144:1a Tillägg, Vilhelm
Moberg collection, Kungliga Biblioteket, Stockholm.
95. Letter from Edgar Swenson to Vilhelm Moberg, 4 March 1953, file
"Brev till Vilhelm Moberg: Svan-Edgar Swenson," L 172:1, Vilhelm Moberg
collection, Kungliga Biblioteket, Stockholm.
96. Ibid.
97. Letter from George Johansen to Edgar Swenson, quoted in ibid.
98. Ibid.
99. Letter Edgar Swenson to Vilhelm Moberg, 4 March 1953.
100. Letter from Edgar Swenson to Vilhelm Moberg, 27 March 1953, file
"Brev till Vilhelm Moberg: Svan-Edgar Swenson," L172:1, Vilhelm Moberg col­lection,
Kungliga Biblioteket, Stockholm.
101. Letter from Edgar Swenson to Vilhelm Moberg, 7 April 1953, file
"Brev till Vilhelm Moberg: Sva-Sven," Vilhelm Moberg collection, Kungliga
Biblioteket, Stockholm.
102. Letter from George P. Johansen to Lasse Widehag, 8 A p r i l 1953.
103. Letter Edgar Swenson to Vilhelm Moberg, 27 March 1953.
104. " 'Drottning Christina' kom hit i natt," Göteborgs Posten, 2 A p r i l 1953,
p. 8.
105. Letter from Lasse Widehag (reporter Göteborg's Handelstidning) to
George P. Johansen, 4 April 1953, file "Svensk-amerikanska press 1950 O k t -
1953," volume S4, box 1:461, U D Pressbyrån collection, Riksarkivet, Stockholm.
106. Ibid.
107. Ibid.
55
108. Telegram from Cabinet (Stockholm) to Swedish Consulate (New York)
and Embassy (Washington), 22 April 1953, file "Svensk-amerikanska press 1950
Okt-1953," volume S4, box 1:461, U D Pressbyrån collection, Riksarkivet,
Stockholm.
109. Ibid.
110. Letter from Vilhelm Moberg to Edgar Swenson, 9 April 1953, file
"Brev från Vilhelm Moberg," L 172:2, Vilhelm Moberg collection, Kungliga
Biblioteket, Stockholm.
111. Letter from Lennart Nylander to Olof Rydbeck (head U D Press Bu­reau),
6 May 1953, file "Svensk-amerikanska press 1950 Okt-1953," volume
S4, box 1:461, U D Pressbyrån collection, Riksarkivet, Stockholm.
112. Ibid.
113. Letter from Lasse Widehag (reporter Göteborg's Handelstidning) to
George P. Johansen, 4 A p r i l 1953.
114. Letter from Nils F. Brown to Olof Rydbeck (head U D Press Bureau), 4
May 1953, file "Svensk-amerikanska press 1950 Okt-1953," volume S4, box
1:461, U D Pressbyrån collection, Riksarkivet, Stockholm.
115. Letter from George P. Johansen to Lasse Widehag, 8 A p r i l 1953.
116. Björk, " A Swedish-American View of Sweden," 30.
117. "Svensk-Amerikan: McCarthy siktar på diktatur," N y Dag, 13 May
1953, p. 6.
118. Björk, " A Swedish-American View of Sweden," 30. See also Brown's
articles in Svea: "Efter fyrtiotre år," 23 April; "Glimtar från dagens Sverige," 21
May; and "Titt bakom svenska kulisserna," 11 June 1953.
119. Letter from Ambassador Eric Boheman to Olof Rydbeck (head U D
Press Bureau), 23 April 1953, file "Svensk-amerikanska press 1950 Okt-1953,"
volume S4, box 1:461, U D Pressbyrån collection, Riksarkivet, Stockholm.
120. Letter from Nils F. Brown to Vilhelm Moberg, 30 May 1953, file "Brev
till Vilhelm Moberg från olika personer A - J , " L 144:1a Tillägg, Vilhelm Moberg
collection, Kungliga Biblioteket, Stockholm.
121. Sven Åhman, "Boheman tuktar illvillig kritiker," Dagens Nyheter, 24
June 1953, p. 7.
122. Letter from Nils F. Brown to Vilhelm Moberg, 25 June 1952 [sic 1953],
file "Brev till Vilhelm Moberg / Bonniers Förlag Br-Bö," L144:1A, Vilhelm
Moberg collection, Kungliga Biblioteket, Stockholm.
123. Letter from Nils F. Brown to Vilhelm Moberg, 25 June 1952 [sic 1953].
124. Björk, " A Swedish-American View of Sweden," 31.
125. Ibid.
126. Ibid., 29-30.
127. Ibid., 31.
128. Letter from Sven Backlund (Embassy Washington) to Kjell Öberg
56
(head of College for Swedish Information Abroad), 22 December 1958, file
"Svensk-amerikanska press 1954-1959," volume S4, box 1:461, U D Pressbyrån
collection, Riksarkivet, Stockholm.
129. Letter from Lennart Nylander to Olof Rydbeck, 6 May 1953.
130. Letter from Lennart Nylander to Olof Rydbeck (head U D Press Bu­reau),
26 August 1954, and reply 31 August 1954, file "Svensk-amerikanska
pressen 1954-1959," volume S4, box 1:461, U D Pressbyrån collection, Riksarkivet,
Stockholm.
131. Quote by Anna Lenah Elgström in letter to Bengt Pleiel (ASNE
Stockholm), 14 April 1956, file "Svensk-amerikanska press 1954-1959," vol­ume
S4, box 1:461, U D Pressbyrån collection, Riksarkivet, Stockholm.
132. Letter from Vilhelm Moberg to Nordstjernan, 31 March 1953.
133. Letter from Edgar Swenson to Vilhelm Moberg, 26 October 1953, file
"Brev till Vilhelm Moberg från olika personer K-Ö," L 144:1a Tillägg, Vilhelm
Moberg collection, Kungliga Biblioteket, Stockholm.
134. A l l a n Kastrup, "Från solsken till oväder med Vilhelm Moberg som
följd av Haijbyaffären," Med Sverige i Amerika, 198-203.
135. Telegram from Lennart Nylander to Olof Rydbeck (head U D Press
Bureau), 23 A p r i l 1953, file "Svensk-amerikanska press 1950 Okt-1953," vol­ume
S4, box 1:461, U D Pressbyrån collection, Riksarkivet, Stockholm.
136. Letter from Edgar Swenson to U D , 20 April 1953, file "Svensk­amerikanska
press 1950 Okt-1953," volume S4, box I:461, U D Pressbyrån col­lection,
Riksarkivet, Stockholm.
137. A l l a n Kastrup, "Ang. Haijbyaffären m.m. i Amerika," 16 A p r i l 1953,
1, 2, file "Svensk-amerikanska press 1950 Okt-1953," volume S4, box 1:461,
U D Pressbyrån collection, Riksarkivet, Stockholm.
138. Moberg, A t t Övervaka Överheten, 181.
139. Letter from Vilhelm Moberg to Consul Lennart Nylander, 26 August
1954, file "Svensk-amerikanska pressen 1954-1959," volume S4, box 1:461, U D
Pressbyrån collection, Riksarkivet, Stockholm.

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"Nordstjernan's Father Complex":
The Swedish-American Press and the
Haijby Affair
EDWARD B U R T ON
The Swedish-American press had an uneasy relationship with
Sweden's Foreign Ministry in the 1950s. Despite the ministry's
efforts, the emigrant newspapers usually portrayed Sweden in
very negative terms. Much of this critical tone in the Swedish-American
press was traditional. In 1914, N o r d s t j e r n a n reported everything in
Sweden from murders to bicycle thefts.1 A N o r d s t j e r n a n editor once
called coverage of Sweden a parade of "events of an unsettling na­ture
. . . [including] fires, murders, suicides, check forgeries, etc."2
Swedish officials long suspected that emigrant editors intentionally
worked to disparage Sweden.3 Reverend Per Pehrsson, for example,
visited America in 1910. When he returned to Sweden, he called the
Swedish-American press "a sewer in which all the filth from Sweden
gathers." Some believed this negativity was deliberate, meant to
keep emigration going. This would, in turn, keep subscription rates
high.4
Much of this came from the Swedish-American editors' mixed
feelings about their former homeland. Emigration changes a person's
basic identity. Such a change may push emigrants to justify endlessly
their decision to leave their home country. The emigrant press still
revered Swedish culture, history, and the very idea of Swedishness.
The mother country naturally could not live up to this idealized
image. This too might have influenced the emigrants' view of Swe­den
as deeply flawed.
EDWARD B U R T O N is a graduate student at the University of Göteborg, with
degrees from B o w d o i n College and Lund University. He teaches modern A m e r i c an
history, with a focus on the C o l d War and the Vietnam conflict. He will defend his
P h . D . dissertation, The Swedish-American Press and the Vietnam War, this year.
31
Professor Ulf Jonas Björk argues that practical causes were often
behind the critical tone. The emigrant papers had limited space for
news coverage of Sweden. Most papers saw events in Sweden as
much less important than covering local Swedish-American news.5
With limited space for Swedish news, editors chose short and direct
news stories. Since accidents or crime stories are easier to tell, the
editors favored these articles.6
Times of crisis could also provoke negative coverage of Sweden.
For example, World War I brought a wave of paranoia about sabo­teurs,
spies, and immigrants. While most hysteria focused on the
Germans, being Swedish-American was something less than "100%
American." Speaking a language other than English was somehow
unpatriotic. The publishers and editors of the Swedish-American
press felt threatened by this. They knew the government was watch­ing
them; it required them to provide translations of their war ar­ticles.
A l l immigrant papers had to seek licenses to continue publish­ing.
7 The safest thing was to adopt a fervently patriotic stand on the
war. When the nativist paranoia fused with the Red Scare, most
Swedish-American papers became passionately anti-Bolshevik.8 In
the immigrant papers, pro-Americanism often equated to hostile
coverage of Sweden.
Back in Sweden, the Foreign Ministry's Press Bureau read these
negative articles with dismay. The bureau's goal was an accurate—
yet flattering—image of Sweden in foreign newspapers. The Foreign
Ministry hoped the Swedish-language press would help develop a
positive Swedish image in America, and founded the Press Bureau
after the 1905 Union Crisis. When Norway seceded from Sweden,
Norway's cause got much more support abroad. The Foreign Minis­try
did not want to let that happen again. In future crises, the Press
Bureau would explain the Swedish position abroad with accurate
Swedish news.9 In the United States, the Press Bureau sought to do
this through the semiofficial American-Swedish News Exchange. This
was set up in 1921, partly to repair the damage the world war had
done to Sweden's image in America. It was literally a news exchange.
It gathered American news for Swedish consumption and Swedish
news for Americans. By 1923 the News Exchange had contracts with
AP, UPI, Canadian Press, and many smaller organizations.1 0 From
32
1948 to 1950, 17,640 articles poured into the New York office.11
The News Exchange selected and provided news articles to the emi­grant
press.
The Swedish-American papers accepted these stories, ran them,
and hardly could have existed without them. Rather than appreciat­ing
these articles, however, they resented them. Many editors saw
these stories as Social Democratic propaganda, churned out by news
bureaucrats.12 Behind the scenes, the immigrant papers engaged in a
bitter private war with the American-Swedish News Exchange and
the Foreign Ministry's Press Bureau.
The Second World War did not unleash the same kind of para­noia.
That came a few years later in the Cold War. Like the Red
Scare, McCarthyism demanded unquestioning patriotism. As in World
War I, the United States again agonized about spies and conspiracies.
America lapsed into extreme conservatism. To be critical of U.S.
policy was to risk being labeled a Communist. Again, it was safer to
be a patriot than a critic.
The Swedish-American press was certainly anti-Communist and
pro-American. This new "100% Americanism" often came at Sweden's
expense. Vestkusten, for example, frequently compared Sweden to
America, with the United States always superior. These comparisons
often came in petty disputes, like comparing Swedish to American
literature. "Modern Swedish poetry is definitely not worth printing,"
wrote V e s t k u s t e n , "and it is worth even less to read in public."1 3
Conservative columnists condemned the folkhem's (Sweden's welfare
system) swollen bureaucracy, secular values, and high taxes. Sweden's
Finance Minister thought the immigrant press exaggerated and twisted
the facts of Sweden's tax structure.1 4 Many immigrant papers be­lieved
the Social Democrats were ruining traditional Swedish moral­ity
and character. Yet, the immigrants zealously defended their old
country against similar criticism from Anglo-Americans. When T i me
called Sweden "The Welfarest State," ruled under "a kind of benevo­lent
despo-socialism," N o r d s t j e r n a n rejected the report as "naive, ri­diculous,
wrong, and thoroughly malicious."15
Nils F. Brown was a professional Swedish-American critic. His
acid columns appeared in conservative papers like N o r d s t j e r n a n and
Svea and radical papers like A r b e t a r e n and F o r u m . Brown belonged
33
to the Socialist Labor Party. This was a small group with a narrow
and purist philosophy of "scientific socialism."1 6 Most of Brown's ar­ticles
criticized American and Swedish society from an SLP position.
Like many professional critics, he was often against more things than
he supported. He was more a critic than a visionary. He fought
everyone on the American left, including Communists and the So­cialist
Party. When he wrote about Sweden, he often targeted the
Social Democrats. Brown thought they were too conservative, intent
on reform under a capitalist system. They abandoned Marxist prin­ciples;
rather than socialist revolution, they sought only high living
standards.17 Brown's criticism of Sweden often needed little rewriting
to fit conservative papers like Nordstjernan.
In the 1940s, Brown targeted the Social Democrats' f o l k h e m , a
Swedish "Great Society." According to Brown, the Social Democrats
had not reduced poverty in Sweden, despite the propaganda to the
contrary. He drove Swedish officials to distraction. They did not like
his "Sweden-hostile articles," which thwarted a positive image for
Sweden. According to some at the Foreign Ministry, Brown was not
completely unsympathetic if one met him in person. In print, "As
soon as he gets a pen in his hand, it's like he gets a thousand devils in
his body."1 8 Swedish officials saw some of his 1953 columns as "the
most disgusting and unbalanced to have appeared in a long time."19
He was "extraordinarily aggressive," frequently "giving free rein to
unprecedented fanaticism."2 0 The Foreign Ministry considered him
as dangerous as an unguided missile.
Brown's 1953 articles were especially caustic. The Foreign Minis­try
had planned to invite five leading Swedish-American journalists
to Stockholm. O n this visit, they would receive awards for their
service from the king. Brown thought that he should receive such an
award, but officials in Sweden made no such overtures, leaving Brown
feeling scandalously ignored.2 1 "Nils F. Brown," said one official, "has
now started a full-scale campaign to get invited to Sweden."2 2 He
solicited letters of support, asking people to encourage the Swedes to
invite him. Some, such as N o r d s t j e r n a n ' s editor, Edgar Swenson, saw
Brown's request as an imposition.2 3 "I refused to do it," Swenson
wrote, "because I don't want to be in any kind of debt of gratitude to
those government boys."2 4 Others gladly joined the campaign. Let-
34
ters singing Brown's praises soon bombarded the Foreign Ministry's
Press Bureau. The Director of the American-Swedish Institute sent a
letter that was typical:
Brown has frequently employed his acutely critical mind to
point out to us new avenues of approach, new directions for
activities that have bogged us down in routine. Even when at
times, he may have been wrong, he has usefully jarred us out
of the complacency to which Swedish-Americans are some­times
subject. He has been stimulating, thought-provoking,
and never lacked the courage to break a lance for the prin­ciples
in which he believes.25
The Foreign Ministry could not have disagreed more. "We stand firm
in our decision not to invite him . . . it is impossible because of
purely economic reasons."26 One suspects there were other reasons.
(In 1958 the Foreign Ministry explicitly refused to invite Svea's editor
to Sweden because of his critical editorials.)27
In the late 1940s and early 1950s Brown became friends with the
Swedish author Vilhelm Moberg. Moberg was in the United States
doing research for his emigration novel series. (The first volume in
this series, The E m i g r a n t s , appeared in 1949). His research led him to
the Swedish-American press, where he met Brown. The two of them
became friends. When critics called U t v a n d r a r n a / T h e E m i g r a n t s ob­scene,
Brown defended Moberg with a positive book review in Svea.28
Meanwhile, Moberg suddenly became increasingly critical of Swed­ish
society and government, possibly from Brown's influence. "Condi­tions
[in Sweden] have recently changed dramatically for the worse,"
Moberg wrote to N o r d s t j e r n a n ' s editor, Edgar Swenson, in 1948. "Free­doms
are limited almost daily with new regulations, people are bitter
and dissatisfied, and we have a government that leads such a mind­less
policy that the nation is threatened by an economic catastro­phe."
2 9 By the early 1950s Moberg was back in Sweden, working for
the Swedish newspaper A r b e t a r e n . According to Moberg, "I have to
be involved in trying to clean up a bit: this place needs the sweep of
a long broom."3 0 This "cleaning-up" turned into Moberg's Rättsrötan
campaign.
35
In one way, Rättsrötan was a simple legal campaign against judi­cial
and state corruption. It was also a call for conservatives and
reformers to clean up what they saw as the folkhem's neo-fascism. The
first two events of Rättsröta were investigations into the so-called
Kejne and Utman Affairs. The most serious event was the Haijby
Affair. In this scandal, Director Kurt Haijby claimed he had a homo­sexual
affair with former King Gustav V in 1932. From 1936 to
1938, Haijby may have extorted as much as 70,000 kronor from the
royal family. In 1938 the courts indicted Haijby on charges of sexual
abuse of a minor. When he escaped that charge, the police had
Haijby committed to a mental institution. In 1939 a doctor found
Haijby mentally sound and he was deported to Nazi Germany. He
returned to Sweden in 1940, and the police again institutionalized
him. When the story began to emerge in 1947, the government
covered it up. Everything about the case was classified as secret and
did not come to the public's attention until 1952, when Haijby was
arrested and put on trial.31
In Sweden, the press handled the case very deliberately and
cautiously. Officials wanted the affair settled as quietly as possible,
out of the press spotlight. Nils Brown learned of the story in February
or March 1952. Brown cabled most or even all the Swedish corre­spondents
in New York, breaking the news. Their reaction to his
cables disappointed Brown. "Only one of them phoned me, and the
poor soul didn't even know what the Haijby Affair was!"32
The Haijby Affair only became common knowledge in Sweden
slowly. More than any other paper, Stockholm's A r b e t a r e n pursued
the story with vigor. Vilhelm Moberg played a leading role in the
investigation. A r b e t a r e n ' s message was that the state apparatus was
bourgeois and corrupt. It also argued that Sweden should abolish the
monarchy.
In the United States, N o r d s t j e r n a n worked hardest to uncover
the truth in the Haijby affair. Editor Edgar Swenson had learned of it
from Nils Brown sometime in early to mid-March 1952.33 Swenson
thought stories like the Haijby Affair "attest to something sick in
Swedish society." The f o l k h e m had certainly brought high cultural
and economic standards, but there was also a darker side behind this
facade. The state had developed a lack of respect for individual
36
rights and freedoms.3 4 In one memorable editorial, Swenson con­demned
Sweden as "embezzlement's, homosexuality's, state and po­lice
brutality's promised land."3 5
The semi-official American-Swedish News Exchange was not as
dynamic in pursuing the Haijby story. In early May 1952 it issued its
first article, "The Swedish Press Discusses the Haijby Affair."3 6 This
report focused more on the press coverage than the affair itself. It
emphasized a Dagens N y h e t e r editorial in which it was said that "full
disclosure will show that the violations which have taken place are of
limited scope, and responsibility rests on only a few people."3 7 The
News Exchange article stressed that the events were unclear and had
occurred long ago.
"If you don't mind me saying so," Nils Brown wrote, "that was
spineless." He had known of the Affair for months, but the News
Exchange and the Swedish media had all silenced it.3 8 N o r d s t j e r n an
surmised the News Exchange could no longer ignore the story, but
now tried to downplay it.3 9 "As far as the News Exchange is con­cerned,"
said Brown, "maybe you're not too much to blame. Perhaps
you had orders from the highest levels that you had to obey."40
Brown implied the News Exchange had obeyed the Royal Palace in
silencing the story.
Brown's letter went to A l l a n Kastrup, the head of the News
Exchange's New York office. Kastrup had managed the New York
Office since 1946, and had turned it into his personal domain. Few
in the News Exchange argued that Kastrup was a good newsman.
According to the Stockholm office, "The simple fact is that Allan is
a damn good editorial writer—and information copy writer—but he
knows nothing about feature material, release items, and news items."41
However, Kastrup was a difficult manager and a combative coworker.
"The greatest trouble I have found is your own negativistic attitude,"
a coworker wrote to Kastrup. "You are a highly undependable man
dealing in all kinds of childish, under-the-table games." Kastrup often
proposed projects, for example, only to condemn them later.42 Col­leagues
have also faulted him for misrepresenting projects that were
not his own.4 3
Allan Kastrup did not know or understand Nils Brown. He did,
however, see him as an enemy of the News Exchange.4 4 Kastrup was
37
certainly not happy with Brown's letter. "With the best possible con­science,
I can assure you that you are one hundred percent wrong."
Kastrup argued that Brown hardly knew the story better than the
News Exchange. The silence was because the News Exchange wanted
the story to become clearer before reporting it abroad.45
Brown disagreed, saying that Swedish-Americans had every right
to know the Haijby story. Brown urged Kastrup to publicize it. If the
News Exchange did not, he would publish it himself.4 6 Kastrup wrote
back, urging Brown not to publish the story. "If, as you sometimes
do, [you] describe Swedish society as more or less rotten, this can be
especially dangerous at the present time."4 7 Brown refused and ac­cused
the News Exchange of betraying its journalistic integrity in
silencing the story.4 8 The letters between Brown and Kastrup dis­solved
into a series of testy accusations. "You can think," Brown
wrote, "that the Hearst newspapers are bad, but they have a lot to
learn from the national Swedish press when it comes to rottenness.
And a lot from the News Exchange."4 9 Relations between Brown and
the News Exchange became positively poisonous by summer 1952.
By this time, the Foreign Ministry considered Brown, Moberg, and
Swenson to be an unholy trio of troublemakers.
The News Exchange released another article in early June.5 0 This
time, Vilhelm Moberg wrote to complain. The article, he argued, was
misleading since it presented only one side in the debate. Only the
voices skeptical of the investigators appeared in it.5 1 After his corre­spondence
with Brown, Kastrup was in a defensive mood. "I was not
especially enthusiastic about the magisterial tone you sometimes used,"
Kastrup wrote back. "You called the News Exchange's report on the
Haijby affair 'misleading' and 'massaged,' which I am forced to say is
completely unjustified." Then, Kastrup noted, "those exact two ex­pressions"
were in a recent N o r d s t j e r n a n editorial. "It may be a coin­cidence,
but can one risk saying that you have put these words in
Edgar [Swenson]'s mouth?"52
Kastrup noted that Moberg's next letter avoided answering this
question.5 3 Instead, Moberg emphasized that N o r d s t j e r n a n only filled
the role the News Exchange had abdicated. Unlike the News Ex­change,
N o r d s t j e r n a n had not given in to pressure to keep quiet. "It is
fortunate there is at least one newspaper in S w e d i s h - A m e r i c a with a
38
courageous, principled, and independent editor. However, he has
been pressured by the newspaper's owner, who in turn may have been
the object of coercion by others."5 4 Kastrup replied, "You could at
least have finished your sentence."55
Kastrup stressed that the News Exchange never contacted
N o r d s t j e r n a n ' s owner about Edgar Swenson's editorials. " A different
issue is whether the owner in question has contacted me," Kastrup
wrote.5 6 The owner thought he might have to dismiss Swenson if he
continued writing about Haijby. Kastrup admitted he disliked some
of Swenson's editorials, but hoped they could avoid dismissing him.
The two of them agreed on that.57
Nordstjernan's owner was George P. Johansen. The Johansen fam­ily
bought the paper in 1875, and George Johansen was the third-generation
owner. Although he owned a Swedish-American paper,
he could not read Swedish. (Swedish-American writers and Foreign
Ministry officials regarded this with ill-disguised contempt.) Person­ally,
Johansen considered the Haijby Affair "a very distasteful sub­ject.
It is, as I see it, completely without any objectivity. In my
humble opinion, it is a mean story. When news digs corpses out of
graves, I want no part of it." It also unnerved him that Brown,
Moberg, and Swenson "have appointed themselves as a committee
of three to drag the late King's name through the mud."5 8 Johansen
told Swenson to drop the Haijby story.59
N o r d s t j e r n a n came under withering criticism back in Sweden.
Svenska D a g b l a d e t described Swenson as reckless, without knowing
the "real situation" in Sweden. Like the Foreign Ministry, Svenska
D a g b l a d e t thought the emigrant papers had a "special responsibility"
in covering Swedish news.6 0 ( N o r d s t j e r n a n dismissed this as a "tearful
appeal to patriotism.")6 1 The next day Dagens N y h e t e r joined the
attack on N o r d s t j e r n a n , when a writer said N o r d s t j e r n a n ' s Haijby sto­ries
"are so thoughtless and (or) simplistic that it is almost disgusting
to find them in a newspaper representing a piece of Sweden's tradi­tions
in the U . S . A . " 6 2 N o r d s t j e r n a n replied that if its reporting dis­gusted
D N , "then the sleazy Swedish 'affairs' that have come to our
attention have shaken and troubled us to our very souls."63
Dagens N y h e t e r reacted most against the charge that it had been
passive on the Haijby story. Unlike Svenska D a g b l a d e t , which claimed
39
it avoided spreading "slander and rumors," Dagens N y h e t e r had de­manded
the Justice Minister release his report on the Affair. Dagens
N y h e t e r pointed out that Svenska Dagbladet had never joined such a
demand. "Can one assert that [the report] is 'slander' or 'rumor­mongering'?"
According to Dagens N y h e t e r , " N o r d s t j e r n a n ' s absurdities
show best what one risks in trying to conceal rather than admit and
account for openly." Cover-ups ultimately only produce hostile press
coverage like N o r d s t j e r n a n ' s . 64
N o r d s t j e r n a n ' s reporting on Haijby quieted down in late 1952.
Instead, its gaze turned to the presidential election and the Catalina
Affair. The only incidents were two articles by Nils Brown. In Svea,
Brown attributed N o r d s t j e r n a n ' s sudden silence to pressure from the
News Exchange.6 5 In N o r d s t j e r n a n , Brown ran an interview with
Vilhelm Moberg. The Seattle paper Svenska Posten rejected the inter­view
as too political. It certainly was.6 6 Perhaps most inflammatory
was a line about "the News Exchange's incredible behavior, attempts
at news suppression, and intrigues against truth-seeking editors." Allan
Kastrup exploded when he read this. He immediately telephoned
Swenson and asked how N o r d s t j e r n a n could print such rubbish.
Swenson blandly said he "checked with Moberg" about the quota­tions,
but said nothing more.67
Just before Christmas (1952), the Swedish courts convicted Haijby
of extortion. It sentenced him to eight years of prison, with hard
labor. Meanwhile, the A t l a n t i c M o n t h l y ran a dubious story that at­tacked
Folke Bernadotte. Rather than a hero, the article portrayed
Bernadotte as reluctant to help Jewish refugees.68 Svenska D a g b l a d et
picked up the A t l a n t i c M o n t h l y article. From there it went back to
New York.6 9 Edgar Swenson included it in his 5 February 1952
edition of N o r d s t j e r n a n . "Through these revelations," Swenson added,
"Bernadotte emerges as . . . an arrogant and meddlesome fraud. . . .
One can hope this British researcher's bomb will explode the sad
Swedish darkness of secrecy so the whole truth can come forward.
These revelations clearly put Bernadotte's murder in a whole new
light—as an understandable, severe act of revenge."70
In reaction to N o r d s t j e r n a n ' s publication of the story, the Swedish
Consul General in New York, Lennart Nylander, sent George P.
Johansen the following telegram:
40
I deeply regret that the editorial on Folke Bernadotte in
today's N o r d s t j e r n a n compels me to voice my deep concern
about the defamation and distrust of the Swedish govern­ment
and the royal family which repeatedly appears in the
paper. To supply the Swedish-American readers with endorse­ments
of loose, unverified statements and erratic conclusions
undermining their respect for Sweden is certainly not a con­structive
policy and conforms in no way with your newspaper's
longstanding traditions and noble aims of strengthening good­will
between Swedes and Swedish-Americans. Being a close
friend and collaborator of Folke Bernadotte's in Berlin during
the closing period of the Second World War, I know from
my own experiences that article on which the editorial is
based to be in important parts untrue.71
George Johansen was furious. "I cannot understand how," he
wrote to Swenson, " i n light of my very explicit instructions and
orders to you that I want no nasty or controversial subjects involving
the Royal House touched upon in N o r d s t j e r n a n , you would run such
a diatribe on Folke Bernadotte. My orders could leave no question as
to my desires."72 While Johansen did not know Gustav V, he knew
Folke Bernadotte well. He had met Bernadotte several times, includ­ing
at a New York reception that he organized. Johansen eventually
came to consider him a friend.7 3 Johansen demanded a "report as to
why my orders have again been disregarded." He then warned, "I
want nothing in the coming issue of N o r d s t j e r n a n on the Bernadotte
story. . . . You must fall in line with my thinking."7 4
"You must fall in line with my thinking"? That a publisher could
give an editor such an order shocked Vilhelm Moberg and Nils
Brown. "That's Goebbels' voice," Moberg told Swenson. "Joseph
Goebbels has risen from the grave and is now walking in America!"
Moberg urged Swenson to continue to defy such pressure.75
The fallout from the Bernadotte story came from other quarters
as well. Svenska D a g b l a d e t condemned the editorial, "which in mat­ters
of vulgarity beats all records."76 Dagens N y h e t e r was equally criti­cal.
7 7 N o r d s t j e r n a n ' s advertisers also disliked the story. The Advertis-
41
ing Distributors of America urged him to stop the articles, not to
"add to the damage already done." Although he had promised to
follow up the story, "This must not be. To glorify the thing by reply
and counter-reply can only result in further damage to our standing
in Sweden. We cannot and should not do it. Drop this hot potato as
it is."78
Swenson did not think he could do that. A professional journal­ist
should be free of political commitments and outside pressures.
Journalists must resist pressure from government, other political ac­tors,
and advertisers. They must even ignore pressure from the news­paper
itself as an institution with its own economic interests.79 To
submit to Johansen or the advertisers' pressure would have been
professionally dishonest. Swenson saw himself as "the editor of an
organ for the free flow of news in America." To surrender N o r d s t j e r n a n 's
independence would "mean a complete suppression of the free press."80
By this point, Swenson was getting news on Haijby from the Associ­ated
Press and the Hearst press.81 He printed an editorial and a letter
on Haijby in N o r d s t j e r n a n ' s 19 February 1952 issue. "I'm sure that
any honest journalist would have done exactly the same thing."82
Johansen was not pleased. "We have come so far apart that the
only course open to me is to accept your resignation as Managing
Editor of N o r d s t j e r n a n , " he told Swenson. Until recently, Johansen
felt "you were only being overzealous in the wrong direction. I did
not anticipate your complete disregard of any direct order that I
would give you. That I cannot tolerate." Johansen promoted the
City Editor, Gerry Rooth, to head editor. Rooth was also "ordered to
remove any article that mentions the controversial Bernadotte story."83
The firing was a bombshell on Swedish America. Swenson had
edited N o r d s t j e r n a n since 1933 and was among the most respected of
Swedish-American editors. To many readers, he was N o r d s t j e r n a n.
Like many, Brown believed Lennart Nylander's telegram had led to
Swenson's dismissal. (Nylander never suggested firing Swenson;
Johansen pointed out that it " in no way influenced my thinking.")84
The popular feeling was that Johansen had bowed to pressure from
the Foreign Ministry in Sweden. "You should feel proud," Brown told
the Swedes, "that you have succeeded in destroying Swedish-America's
best newspaper."85
42
Brown added, "It is unprecedented that a foreign state's represen­tative
would interfere in the Swedish-American press's activities and
try to force them into a cover-up and other fascist journalism."86
Swenson wondered why Nylander had the right to monitor what
appeared in American newspapers. If Nylander objected to
N o r d s t j e r n a n ' s editorials, he should have contacted the editor, not the
owner. Contacting the owner was inappropriate and amounted to
improper government pressure on the press.87 Swenson thought the
Foreign Ministry did not understand that the Swedish-American press
was an American press. Swedish was only its language of publica­t
i o n . 8 8
Among themselves, the ministry officials agreed with Swenson.
They felt he should have had the right to decide N o r d s t j e r n a n ' s con­tent,
free from outside pressure.89 When they replied to Swenson,
however, they completely backed Nylander's actions. As Consul,
Nylander's job was to ensure that only accurate information on Swe­den
appeared in the press. If a paper carried false or misleading
information in the news, he was to contact its chefredaktör (managing
editor). Nylander turned to Johansen, thinking that N o r d s t j e r n a n 's
"publisher" was the American equivalent of chefredaktör. Whatever
happened afterward was a purely internal matter at N o r d s t j e r n a n . 90
If the Swedish Foreign Ministry hoped this turn of events at
N o r d s t j e r n a n would contain a widening scandal, it was wrong. Nils
Brown went berserk. To think that a publisher was the same as an
editor was "the height of dishonesty." They were not that dumb; it
was just another of the Foreign Ministry's "dirty intrigues."9 1 " A l l
decent Swedes who know you," Brown told Nylander, "consider you
a filthy bastard and a lying, vile scoundrel, who well represents the
utterly rotten Swedish f o l k h e m , but is a shame for the old, honest
Sweden."9 2
Vilhelm Moberg had little direct influence over N o r d s t j e r n a n , but
undertook a symbolic protest. He wrote N o r d s t j e r n a n to demand it
immediately stop printing his novel, The Clenched Hands. "I gave the
rights to this serial to editor Swenson as a purely personal gift. Since
editor Swenson has left the paper—his tenure as editor was a clear
condition for this gift—this right no longer applies."9 3 N o r d s t j e r n an
pulled Moberg's serial. It said that people did not have enough time
43
during the summer to read such literature.9 4 It was a paper-thin
explanation.
The war over N o r d s t j e r n a n was badly hurting the morale of the
paper's staff. Swenson's friends at N o r d s t j e r n a n said the place was
desolate and empty without him. The office felt bare now that his
things were gone and his pictures were down from the walls.9 5 The
typesetting personnel considered a sympathy strike to bring Swenson
back. Johansen avoided this by agreeing to meet with Swenson to
discuss all issues, including a possible reinstatement.96
On 4 March Edgar Swenson got in the mail what he thought was
George Johansen's capitulation. "He's coming crawling to Canossa,"
Swenson thought. Johansen wrote:
Perhaps rather than writing more notes, the best thing for us
to do is to meet in person as two old friends with a problem
to discuss. Why not call me (I don't have any phone number
for your home) and we will set a day and time next week
that is possible for both of us. This week is a bit more than
tight. I'm sure that I feel worse than you do about the differ­ences
that have come between us during the past month and
year.
Sincerely, George.
PS—Your weekly [pay] check is enclosed to reach you as
usual on Wednesday.97
Johansen unexpectedly offered to pay Swenson's salary for six
weeks. Contrary to what Johansen said, Swenson's name was indeed
in the phone book. Swenson assumed that Johansen was merely
afraid to call.98
Swenson did not call Johansen. If Johansen wanted to have a
meeting, he would have to call and arrange it himself.9 9 There was
still great tension between the two men. After two weeks, Johansen
had not replied. Gerry Rooth sent a note offering to call when
Johansen was ready, but Swenson never heard from him. Swenson
began to think that Rooth was deliberately stalling, working to pre­vent
a reconciliation.1 0 0 Swenson and Johansen finally met for lunch
44
in early April 1953. It was not a reconciliation, and neither man
came crawling to Canossa. According to Swenson, Johansen repeat­edly
emphasized that he was "the boss" and decided what appeared
in N o r d s t j e r n a n . 1 0 1 According to Johansen, "We discussed with ut­most
frankness the entire situation and parted in a very friendly way."
It was agreed that he would call Gerry Rooth and straighten
himself out with Gerry and clear a misunderstanding that has
arisen between them. Unfortunately, Edgar must have either
misunderstood or didn't want to contact Gerry. They did not
meet. The last I heard was that Edgar plans to go over [to
Sweden] and that Moberg will go at the same time.1 02
Swenson decided to take his case to Sweden. He gave up his
apartment in New York, finished up his current projects, and cleared
his calendar. He planned to tour Sweden with Vilhelm Moberg and
Nils Brown for four to six months.1 03
The Foreign Ministry watched with apprehension as Nils Brown
boarded a ship to Sweden. He arrived in Göteborg on 1 April 1953.1 04
While there, Brown told local reporters that Edgar Swenson "lost his
job because of unpleasant writing about the Haijby case." He added
that Swenson would be coming to Sweden in two weeks.1 0 5 This was
exactly what Swenson instructed Brown to say. Brown would "give a
little hint about the scandal . . . thus awakening curiosity and prepar­ing
the ground for our arrival."1 0 6
Many feared that Moberg, Swenson, and Brown planned a nasty
publicity campaign against the Swedish state.1 0 7 Edgar Swenson ar­rived
in Stockholm on 23 April, and Vilhelm Moberg met him at the
airport.1 0 8 They immediately held a press conference, at which Swenson
gave reporters copies of Johansen's 6 February letter. This letter in­cluded
Nylander's telegram. Swenson also brought the Foreign
Ministry's letter with the foolishly implausible defense that "pub­lisher"
equaled chefredaktör.109
Moberg and Brown planned this as a campaign to vindicate
Edgar Swenson before the Swedish press. "You can be sure that all
Sweden's decent newspapers will come to your side when they dis­cover
what's happened," Moberg told Swenson. " A letter like the
45
one George sent you is an insult to all the world's newsmen!"1 1 0
While they were in Sweden, Brown contacted George Johansen and
offered to buy N o r d s t j e r n a n . Edgar Swenson had also asked about
purchasing the paper. Neither man was rich enough to buy
N o r d s t j e r n a n , so it is possible that they asked Vilhelm Moberg to
back the sale. This was what Consul Lennart Nylander suspected,
and he may have been right.1 1 1 While the episode had hurt N o r d s t j e r n an
financially, Johansen was not willing to sell. In any case, Johansen did
not want N o r d s t j e r n a n to go to Swenson, Brown, and Moberg. He
would rather see the paper close than become part of an ugly owner­ship
battle.1 12
If there was a publicity campaign, it was largely one of rumors.
Nils Brown told a reporter from Göteborg's H a n d e l s t i d n i n g "that Moberg
and Edgar have planned to ask the U.S. State Department to stop
the Swedish-American News Exchange."1 1 3 Brown also told the For­eign
Ministry that he had written proof—letters from A l l a n Kastrup—
that the News Exchange had tried to silence and "ruin" the Swedish-
American press.1 1 4 This may have been little more than a scare
tactic. "Our State Department does not stick its neck out too far,"
George Johansen noted. "However, it is possible that Edgar and
Moberg might try to start something against the News Exchange.
Edgar is not and has not been friendly to them for a long time."1 15
The Swedish government may have struck back with a rumor of
its own. There were soon reports that Brown had returned to Sweden
only to exploit the Swedish pension system.1 1 6 Brown denied the
story. He told a journalist that his son had moved to Sweden and
encouraged him to do the same.1 1 7 It is unlikely he meant to do this.
Brown's "Reports from the F o l k h e m , " which appeared in Svea, were
again acidly critical of Swedish society and government. Sweden,
Brown repeated, was "a decadent country," and its people were "worse"
now than fifty years earlier. Corruption was a terrible problem, and
everything from banking to housing was awash in bureaucratic red
tape.1 1 8
The Foreign Ministry reacted swiftly. Ambassador Eric Boheman
had recommended silence on Brown, Swenson, and the N o r d s t j e r n an
episode.1 1 9 A t the same time, he decided to visit Worcester, Massa­chusetts—
a place rarely visited by ambassadors. Worcester was where
46
Brown's current newspaper, Svea, was published. It was the only
paper to print Brown's articles on Edgar Swenson's dismissal from
N o r d s t j e r n a n . V e s t k u s t e n and C a n a d a - T i d n i n g received similar articles
on Swenson's firing but did not print them. "Their publishers perhaps
got orders from the Foreign Ministry," Brown wrote to Moberg.1 20
While visiting Worcester, Boheman publicly criticized Nils Brown's
articles, and his comments carried with them an indirect criticism of
Svea for publishing them. He called the stories "superficial, unfair,
and malicious," but did not identify the author. In covering the
speech, Dagens N y h e t e r identified Brown as the ambassador's tar­get.
1 2 1 "That's Sven Öste's work," Brown noted.1 2 2 Dagens N y h e t er
could only have learned Brown's identity through its New York cor­respondent,
Sven Öste.
Brown stormed up to Herbert Tingsten, Dagens N y h e t e r ' s editor,
and demanded the right to reply to "Boheman and his traffic of lies."
Tingsten refused. According to Swedish law, a newspaper has no
obligation to allow a rebuttal.1 2 3 Angrily, Brown complained to Moberg
about "decadence and fascism" in Sweden.1 2 4 Brown had to settle for
a response in Svea. There he delivered a salvo against not only
Dagens N y h e t e r , but Sweden's radio, morality, housing, racism, social
divisions, and sanitation as well.1 2 5 He described Sweden as "a dismal
desert of stone," and "an incredibly entangled and uncomfortable
country." Swedish women could not walk alone without being ha­rassed,
and society was rife with "moral, social, and literary deca­dence."
1 2 6
Boheman's appearance in Worcester may have led Svea's publish­ers
to have second thoughts about Brown's tirades. In a few months,
his political columns completely disappeared from the paper's pages.
While he still wrote book reviews and occasional items on the ethnic
press, acid criticism of Sweden was now in the past.1 2 7 Still, the
Foreign Ministry remembered Svea's activities during the Haijby Af­fair.
When officials there considered holding a Swedish-American
editors' meeting in 1958, they did not invite Svea's editor. Henning
Nelson's Haijby-related editorials made him "a particularly unsuit­able
guest." According to the ministry, Svea had disparaged Sweden,
the embassy, and the Swedish government. Worse still, Svea ran Nils
Brown's articles on Haijby.1 28
47
In early May 1953, Consul Lennart Nylander thanked everyone
at the Foreign Ministry for their "effective intervention in the contro­versy
around N o r d s t j e r n a n . " Apart from a few polemics by Brown,
Moberg, and Swenson, he expected the issue would soon die down.1 29
Although angry letters from Moberg and Brown continued to come
in, Ministry officials agreed to ignore them.1 3 0 There was nothing
more they could do.
Svea had already dropped Brown's articles. The militant
N o r d s t j e r n a n was now tame, and " N o r d s t j e r n a n ' s father complex" against
Sweden was gone.1 3 1 Gerry Rooth had become the paper's editor on
the condition that he avoid controversy, which he did. Aggressive
Swedish-American reporting disappeared from N o r d s t j e r n a n ' s pages.
Vilhelm Moberg asked, "Has N o r d s t j e r n a n ceased to be a news or­gan?"
1 3 2
The answer was yes. N o r d s t j e r n a n and Svea had taken the first
steps toward becoming archaic cultural objects rather than living
news organs. The emigrant papers slowly became what the Foreign
Ministry wanted them to be: part of the Swedish publicity service in
America. (Edgar Swenson commented that his old paper was quickly
becoming "a plate-licking and royalty-fawning rag. It is now edited
almost entirely from Rockefeller Center and Park Avenue and Swe­den.")
1 3 3 The Haijby Affair may have been the emigrant editors' last
failed attempt to resist this trend. From 1953 onward they could no
longer resist the growing influence of the hidden state structure be­hind
their newspapers. They increasingly depended on the Foreign
Ministry's Press Bureau and the News Exchange, and they soon would
depend on S v e r i g e - N y t t , the Swedish-International Press Bureau, and
the Swedish Information Service. The editors could accept this help,
or they could wind up like Edgar Swenson.
Most documents relating to this episode come from the Foreign
Ministry's Press Bureau archives. As one might expect, these papers
depict the ministry and the News Exchange as sensible, prudent
actors. A l l a n Kastrup, in M e d S v e r i g e i A m e r i k a , also sanitizes the
Foreign Ministry's and the News Exchange's roles in Swenson's dis­missal.
1 3 4 Yet there are several points where the written evidence is
unclear or contradictory.
First, did Lennart Nylander try to reach Edgar Swenson before
48
going to N o r d s t j e r n a n ' s owner? For his part, Nylander claims he con­tacted
Johansen because Swenson was unresponsive.1 3 5 The Foreign
Ministry said Nylander only wanted to write a rebuttal to Swenson's
editorial. According to Swenson, N o r d s t j e r n a n would have printed
Nylander's reply. Yet Swenson says that Nylander never contacted
him.1 3 6 Allan Kastrup's testimony is equivocal. He says that it was
difficult to reach Swenson, but Swenson was "a hermit" who rarely
left N o r d s t j e r n a n . 1 3 7 In any case, N o r d s t j e r n a n never printed a rebut­tal,
and there is no evidence that suggests Nylander wrote one.1 38
Second, was N o r d s t j e r n a n for sale? In one respect, George P.
Johansen was the last casualty of the Haijby Affair. His decision to
fire Swenson was not popular and cost N o r d s t j e r n a n many loyal sub­scribers.
The paper's subscription decline forced Johansen to sell the
newspaper in August 1954.1 3 9 But why did Johansen refuse to sell in
April 1953? Brown, Swenson, and Moberg were eager buyers at the
time. They likely commanded much more capital than Gerry Rooth
had in 1954. The Foreign Ministry's files are strangely silent on this
point, although one can assume that officials there would have disap­proved
of the sale. It could be that they registered this disapproval in
some way with George Johansen.
ENDNOTES
1. Michael Sjöström, "Sverigebilden i de två svensk-amerikanska tidningar
Arbetaren och Nordstjernan år 1914" (Adviser: Lars Ljungmark), B-paper, history
department, Göteborg University, H T 1995: 7, 9.
2. Vilhelm Berger, cited in Ulf Jonas Björk, "The Immigrant Press," Swenson
C e n t e r N e w s , no. 14 (2000): 4.
3. Björk, "The Immigrant Press."
4. Quote from Per Pehrsson and Adrian Molin's "more emigration" argu­ment
from The Swedish-American Press: Three Newspapers and Their C o m m u n i t i e s,
by Ulf Jonas Björk (Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms International,
1987), 92-93.
5. Svensk-Amerikanska Pressutredningen, Utvandrarnas tidningar: Betänkande
(Stockholm: The Swedish Foreign Ministry, 1971), 20.
6. Björk, "The Immigrant Press." See also Björk, The Swedish-American Press,
94-95.
7. Marion Tuttle Marzolf, "The Danish Immigrant Newspaper: O l d Friend
in a New Land," in From Scandinavia to America: Proceedings from a Conference
49
held at Gl. Holtegaard, Odense University Studies in History and Social Sciences,
vol. 103 (Odense: Odense University Press, 1987), 299, 310.
8. Finis Herbert Capps, From Isolation to Involvement: The Swedish I m m i g r a nt
Press in America, 1914-1945 (Chicago: Swedish Pioneer Historical Society, 1966),
208.
9. Herman Gyllenhaal, "UD:s Pressbyrå 90 år," U D - K u r i r e n , nr. 2 (April
1999): 5. For a more complete discussion of U D Pressbyrån's origins, see Sven
Eriksson, "Utrikespolitiken och pressen: Till frågan om utrikesdepartementets
pressbyråns tillkomst," Svenska Tidskriften, no. 10 (1955): 547-56.
10. A l l a n Kastrup, Med Sverige i Amerika: Opinioner, stämningar och
upplysningarbete—en rapport av A l l a n Kastrup (Malmö: Corona, 1985), 35.
11. Redogörelse för Svensk-Amerikanska Nyhetsbyråns Verksamhet, 1948-1950
(Stockholm: Svenska-Amerikanska Nyhetsbyrån, 1950), 28.
12. U l f Jonas Björk, " A Swedish-American View of Sweden: The Journal­ism
of Nils F. Brown, 1910-1953," Swedish-American Historical Q u a r t e r l y 44, no.
1 (January 1993): 29-30. See also Svea, 26 June 1952, p. 4, and "Titt bakom
svenska kulisserna," Svea, 11 June 1953.
13. Vestkusten, 15 June 1950, quoted in Anders-Petter Sjödin, "Etnocitet
eller assimilation i 'liberala' Vestkusten," unpublished C-paper, history depart­ment,
Uppsala University, 6 October 1980, 22, 28.
14. A l l a n Kastrup, "Utdrag ur memorandum, p. 100-," probably written
1980, Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center, Augustana College,
American Swedish News Exchange (Allan Kastrup) files, box " A S N E : Allan
Kastrup, Personal Papers," file " A S N E : Papers Relating to the Activities of the
American-Swedish News Exchange," 4. This is likely a deleted extract from
Kastrup's unpublished manuscript, "Upplysning om Sverige i Nordamerika: genom
svensk-amerikanska nyhetsbyrån," April 1980 ("Personligt—ej publicering i någon
form"), file "Pressen och telegram—och nyhetsbyråer i Sverige samt
nyhetsförmedling—Svensk-amerikanska pressen, 1978-01-01-1982-04-30," U D
Pressbyrån archives, Swedish Foreign Ministry, Stockholm.
15. "Sweden: The Well-Stocked Cellar," Time, 31 December 1951; Edgar
Swenson, "Det 'tråkiga' Sverige," Nordstjernan, 17 January 1952, p. 4.
16. U l f Jonas Björk, "Swedish Ethnicity and Labor Socialism in the Work of
Nils F:son Brown, 1919-1928," H i s t o r i a n 59, no. 4 (Summer 1997): 764.
17. Björk, " A Swedish-American View of Sweden," 28.
18. Kastrup, Med Sverige i Amerika, 201.
19. Letter from Sven Backlund (Embassy Washington) to Olof Rydbeck
(head of U D Pressbyrån), 10 July 1953, file "Svensk-amerikanska press 1950
Okt-1953," volume S4, box 1:461, U D Pressbyrån collection, Riksarkivet,
Stockholm. One of the two articles is Nils F. Brown, " 'Sverige är ett dekadent
land,' sa Nisse Brown," Svenska Posten, 1 July 1953. .
50
20. Memo by A l l a n Kastrup, "Ang. Haijbyaffären m.m. i Amerika," 16
April 1953, 2, file "Svensk-amerikanska press 1950 Okt-1953," volume S4,
box 1:461, U D Pressbyrån collection, Riksarkivet, Stockholm.
21. Kastrup, Med Sverige i Amerika, 201.
22. Letter from Olof Rydbeck (head of U D Pressbyrån) to Sven Backlund
(Embassy Washington), 30 January 1953, file "Korrespondens med U D , amb,
och konsulat 1949-1958," box A:26, Svensk-Amerikanska Nyhetsbyrån collec­tion,
Riksarkivet, Arninge.
23. Letter from Edgar Swenson to Vilhelm Moberg, 13 January 1953, file
"Brev till Vilhelm Moberg: Sva-Sven," Vilhelm Moberg collection, Kungliga
Biblioteket, Stockholm.
24. Letter from Edgar Swenson to Vilhelm Moberg, 6 February 1953, file
"Brev till Vilhelm Moberg: Svan-Edgar Swenson," L 172:1, Vilhelm Moberg
collection, Kungliga Biblioteket, Stockholm.
25. Letter from Nils G . Sahlin (Director American Swedish Institute) to
Gösta L. S. af Petersén (First Secretary U D ) , 16 January 1953, file "Svensk­amerikanska
press 1950 Okt-1953," volume S4, box 1:461, U D Pressbyrån col­lection,
Riksarkivet, Stockholm.
26. Letter from Olof Rydbeck (head of U D Pressbyrån) to Sven Backlund
(Embassy Washington), 30 January 1953, file "Korrespondens med U D , amb,
och konsulat 1949-1958," box A:26, Svensk-Amerikanska Nyhetsbyrån collec­tion,
Riksarkivet, Arninge.
27. Letter from Sven Backlund (Embassy Washington) to Kjell Öberg (head
of College for Swedish Information Abroad), 22 December 1958, file "Svensk­amerikanska
press 1954-1959," volume S4, box 1:461, U D Pressbyrån collec­tion,
Riksarkivet, Stockholm.
28. Svea, 8 December 1949; Björk, " A Swedish-American View of Swe-den,"
29.
29. Letter from Vilhelm Moberg to Edgar Swenson, late 1948, cited in
Kastrup, Med Sverige i Amerika, 199.
30. Letter from Vilhelm Moberg to A l l a n Kastrup, November 1950, cited
in Kastrup, Med Sverige i Amerika, 200.
31. For information on the Haijby Affair, see Maths Heuman, Rättsaffärerna
Kejne och Haijby (Stockholm: P. A . Norstedt &. Söners förlag, 1978), 241-308.
Vilhelm Moberg, A t t övervaka överheten (Stockholm: Bonniers, 1953), 155-91.
Henning Sjöström, Dramat om Haijby: En vitbok i Haijbyaffären (Stockholm:
Wahlström & Widstrand, 1954).
32. Nils F. Brown, quoted in memo by A l l a n Kastrup, "Ang. Haijbyaffären
m.m. i Amerika," 16 April 1953, 2, file "Svensk-amerikanska press 1950 O k t -
1953," volume S4, box 1:461, U D Pressbyrån collection, Riksarkivet, Stockholm.
33. Letter from Nils F. Brown to Vilhelm Moberg, 31 March 1952, file
51
"Brev till Vilhelm Moberg: A - B r u , " L 172:1, Vilhelm Moberg collection, Kungliga
Biblioteket, Stockholm.
34. Edgar Swenson, "Rättshotet i kollektiv-Sverige," Nordstjernan, 22 May
1952, p. 4.
35. Edgar Swenson, "Rättsröta och Pressröta," Nordstjernan, 8 May 1952, p.
6. Swenson repeats this charge in " V i trampar i det svenska ormboet," Nordstjernan,
5 June 1952, 6.
36. "Svensk press diskuterar 'Haijbyaffären': Dagens Nyheter: Offentlighet
skulle belysa dess begränsade omfattning," American Swedish News Exchange, 6
May 1952.
37. Dagens Nyheter, 4 May 1952, quoted ibid.
38. Letter from Nils F. Brown to A l l a n Kastrup, 13 May 1952, quoted in
Kastrup, "Ang. Haijbyaffären m.m. i Amerika."
39. Swenson, "Rättshotet i kollektiv-Sverige," p. 6.
40. Letter from Nils F. Brown to A l l a n Kastrup, 13 May 1952.
41. Letter from Ellis I. Folke to Lars Malmström, 25 January 1960, file
"Korrespondens med New York kontoret 1959-1960," box A:16, Svensk-
Amerikanska Nyhetsbyrån collection, Riksarkivet, Arninge.
42. Letter from Ellis I. Folke to A l l a n Kastrup, 14 December 1959, file
"Korrespondens med A l l a n Kastrup 1957-1959," box A:21, Svensk-Amerikanska
Nyhetsbyrån collection, Riksarkivet, Arninge.
43. For example, the News Exchange decided to reorganize its news service
to the Swedish-American press in 1959. Although the News Service was greatly
intensifying its service, Kastrup told the Swedish-American editors "there would
now be a drastic reduction in our service to them." In Stockholm, Ellis Folke
was "flabbergasted at Allen's reaction" to the reorganization. Letter from Ellis I.
Folke to Olov Ternström (Embassy Washington), 18 September 1959, file
"Korrespondens med U D , amb., och konsulat 1959-1960," box A:26, Svensk-
Amerikanska Nyhetsbyrån collection, Riksarkivet, Arninge.
44. Kastrup, "Ang. Haijbyaffären m.m. i Amerika."
45. Letter from A l l a n Kastrup to Nils Brown, 19 May 1952, quoted in
Kastrup, "Ang. Haijbyaffären m.m. i Amerika."
46. Letter from Nils F. Brown to A l l a n Kastrup, 21 May 1952, quoted in
Kastrup, "Ang. Haijbyaffären m.m. i Amerika."
47. Letter from A l l a n Kastrup to Nils Brown, 29 May 1952, quoted in
Kastrup, "Ang. Haijbyaffären m.m. i Amerika."
48. Letter from Nils F. Brown to A l l a n Kastrup, 31 May 1952, quoted in
Kastrup, "Ang. Haijbyaffären m.m. i Amerika."
49. Letter from Nils F. Brown to A l l a n Kastrup, 2 June 1952, quoted in
Kastrup, "Ang. Haijbyaffären m.m. i Amerika."
50. "Offentlighet i Haijbyaffären: De anklagade ämbetsmännen fritas från
52
lagstridiga övergrepp men anses av flera tidningar ha visat mycket dåliga omdöme,"
A m e r i c a n Swedish News Exchange, 5 June 1952.
51. Letter from Vilhelm Moberg to A l l a n Kastrup, 10 June 1952, quoted in
Kastrup, "Ang. Haijbyaffären m.m. i Amerika."
52. Letter from A l l a n Kastrup to Vilhelm Moberg, 13 or 14 June 1952,
quoted in Kastrup, "Ang. Haijbyaffären m.m. i Amerika." See also Edgar Swenson,
"Mörkläggningens straff," Nordstjernan, 12 June 1952, p. 6.
53. Letter from A l l a n Kastrup to Vilhelm Moberg, 19 June 1952, quoted in
Kastrup, "Ang. Haijbyaffären m.m. i Amerika."
54. Underlined in original. Letter from Vilhelm Moberg to A l l a n Kastrup,
17 June 1952, quoted in Kastrup, "Ang. Haijbyaffären m.m. i Amerika."
55. Letter from A l l a n Kastrup to Vilhelm Moberg, 19 June 1952, quoted in
Kastrup, "Ang. Haijbyaffären m.m. i Amerika."
56. Letter from A l l a n Kastrup to Vilhelm Moberg, 19 June 1952, quoted in
Kastrup, "Ang. Haijbyaffären m.m. i Amerika."
57. Letter from A l l a n Kastrup to Vilhelm Moberg, 19 June 1952, quoted in
Kastrup, "Ang. Haijbyaffären m.m. i Amerika."
58. Letter from George P. Johansen to Lasse Widehag (reporter for Göteborg's
Handelstidning) 8 A p r i l 1953, file "Svensk-amerikanska press 1950 Okt-1953,"
volume S4, box 1:461, U D Pressbyrån collection, Riksarkivet, Stockholm.
59. Letter from Edgar Swenson to U D , 20 April 1953, file "Svensk­amerikanska
press 1950 Okt-1953," volume S4, box 1:461, U D Pressbyrån col­lection,
Riksarkivet, Stockholm. Copy also in file "Korrespondens med U D ,
amb, och konsulat 1949-1958," box A:26, Swedish-American News Exchange
collection, Riksarkivet, Arninge.
60. " 'Rättsrötan' inför utlandet," Svenska Dagbladet, 24 May 1952, p. 4.
61. Edgar Swenson, " V i trampar i det svenska ormboet," Nordstjernan, 5
June 1952, p. 4.
62. Herbert Tingsten, "Fariséer i polemik," Dagens Nyheter, 25 May 1952, p.
2.
63. Swenson, " V i trampar i det svenska ormboet."
64. Tingsten, "Fariséer i polemik."
65. Nils F. Brown in interview with Vilhelm Moberg, Nordstjernan, 16 Oc­tober
1952. Also quoted in Kastrup, "Ang. Haijbyaffären m.m. i Amerika."
66. Letter from Nils F. Brown to Vilhelm Moberg, 11 October 1952, file
"Brev till Vilhelm Moberg från olika personer A - J , " L 144:1a Tillägg, Vilhelm
Moberg collection, Kungliga Biblioteket, Stockholm.
67. Nils F. Brown in interview with Vilhelm Moberg, Nordstjernan, 16 Oc­tober
1952.
68. H . R. Trevor-Roper, "Kersten, Himmler, and Count Bernadotte," The
A t l a n t i c M o n t h l y 191, no. 2 (1953): 43-45.
53
69. "Kring Folke Bernadotte," Svenska Dagbladet, 30 January 1953.
70. Edgar Swenson, Nordstjernan, 5 February 1952; also reprinted in Svenska
Dagbladet, 12 February 1953, p. 4.
71. Telegram from Lennart Nylander, quoted in full in letter from George P.
Johansen to Edgar Swenson, 6 February 1953, file "Svensk-amerikanska press
1950 Okt-1953," volume S4, box 1:461, U D Pressbyrån collection, Riksarkivet,
Stockholm.
72. Letter from George P. Johansen to Edgar Swenson, 6 February 1953.
73. Letter from George P. Johansen to Countess Bernadotte, 16 March 1953,
file "Svensk-amerikanska press 1950 Okt-1953," volume S4, box 1:461, U D
Pressbyrån collection, Riksarkivet, Stockholm. See also Johansen's letter to Edgar
Swenson, 6 February 1953.
74. Letter from George P. Johansen to Edgar Swenson, 6 February 1953.
75. Letter from Vilhelm Moberg to Edgar Swenson, 31 March 1953, file
"Brev från Vilhelm Moberg," L 172:2, Vilhelm Moberg collection, Kungliga
Biblioteket, Stockholm.
76. Svenska Dagbladet, 12 February 1953, p. 4.
77. The Dagens Nyheter editorial is said to be in the 11 February 1952 issue,
but I cannot find it.
78. Letter from an Advertising Distributors of America spokesman (illegible
signature) to Edgar Swenson, 16 February 1953, file "Svensk-amerikanska press
1950 Okt-1953," volume S4, box 1:461, U D Pressbyrån collection, Riksarkivet,
Stockholm. See also Johansen's letter to Edgar Swenson, 6 February 1953.
79. Daniel C . Hallin, The "Uncensored War": The Media and Vietnam (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1986), 68.
80. Letter from Edgar Swenson to U D , 20 April 1953.
81. Letter from Edgar Swenson to Vilhelm Moberg, 28 February 1953, file
"Brev till Vilhelm Moberg: Svan-Edgar Swenson," L 172:1, Vilhelm Moberg
collection, Kungliga Biblioteket, Stockholm.
82. Letter from Edgar Swenson to U D , 20 A p r i l 1953.
83. Letter from George P. Johansen to Edgar Swenson, 24 February 1953,
file "Svensk-amerikanska press 1950 Okt-1953," volume S4, box 1:461, U D
Pressbyrån collection, Riksarkivet, Stockholm.
84. Letter from George P. Johansen to Lasse Widehag, 8 A p r i l 1953.
85. Letter from Nils F. Brown to Olof Rydbeck (head U D Press Bureau), 1
May 1953, file "Svensk-amerikanska press 1950 Okt-1953," volume S4, box
1:461, U D Pressbyrån collection, Riksarkivet, Stockholm. Copy also in file
"Korrespondens med U D , amb, och konsulat 1949-1958," box A:26, Swedish-
American News Exchange collection, Riksarkivet, Arninge.
86. Ibid.
87. Letter from Edgar Swenson to U D , 20 April 1953.
54
88. Letter from Edgar Swenson to Vilhelm Moberg, 28 February 1953.
89. Letter from Olof Rydbeck (head U D Press Bureau) to Mac Lindahl
(ASNE Stockholm), 25 April 1953, file "Korrespondens med U D , amb, och
konsulat 1949-1958," box A:26, Swedish-American News Exchange collection,
Riksarkivet, Arninge.
90. Letter from Olof Rydbeck (head U D Press Bureau) to Edgar Swenson,
24 April 1953, file "Svensk-amerikanska press 1950 Okt-1953," volume S4,
box 1:461, U D Pressbyrån collection, Riksarkivet, Stockholm.
91. Letter from Nils F. Brown to Olof Rydbeck, 1 May 1953.
92. Letter from Nils F. Brown to Lennart Nylander, 26 December 1954, file
"Svensk-amerikanska pressen 1954-1959," volume S4, box 1:461, U D Pressbyrån
collection, Riksarkivet, Stockholm.
93. Letter from Vilhelm Moberg to Nordstjernan, 31 March 1953, file "Svensk­amerikanska
press 1950 Okt-1953," volume S4, box 1:461, U D Pressbyrån col­lection,
Riksarkivet, Stockholm. Copy exists in file "Brev från Vilhelm Moberg,"
Vilhelm Moberg collection, Kungliga Biblioteket, Stockholm.
94- Letter from Edgar Swenson to Vilhelm Moberg, 26 October 1953, file
"Brev till Vilhelm Moberg från olika personer K-Ö," L 144:1a Tillägg, Vilhelm
Moberg collection, Kungliga Biblioteket, Stockholm.
95. Letter from Edgar Swenson to Vilhelm Moberg, 4 March 1953, file
"Brev till Vilhelm Moberg: Svan-Edgar Swenson," L 172:1, Vilhelm Moberg
collection, Kungliga Biblioteket, Stockholm.
96. Ibid.
97. Letter from George Johansen to Edgar Swenson, quoted in ibid.
98. Ibid.
99. Letter Edgar Swenson to Vilhelm Moberg, 4 March 1953.
100. Letter from Edgar Swenson to Vilhelm Moberg, 27 March 1953, file
"Brev till Vilhelm Moberg: Svan-Edgar Swenson," L172:1, Vilhelm Moberg col­lection,
Kungliga Biblioteket, Stockholm.
101. Letter from Edgar Swenson to Vilhelm Moberg, 7 April 1953, file
"Brev till Vilhelm Moberg: Sva-Sven," Vilhelm Moberg collection, Kungliga
Biblioteket, Stockholm.
102. Letter from George P. Johansen to Lasse Widehag, 8 A p r i l 1953.
103. Letter Edgar Swenson to Vilhelm Moberg, 27 March 1953.
104. " 'Drottning Christina' kom hit i natt," Göteborgs Posten, 2 A p r i l 1953,
p. 8.
105. Letter from Lasse Widehag (reporter Göteborg's Handelstidning) to
George P. Johansen, 4 April 1953, file "Svensk-amerikanska press 1950 O k t -
1953," volume S4, box 1:461, U D Pressbyrån collection, Riksarkivet, Stockholm.
106. Ibid.
107. Ibid.
55
108. Telegram from Cabinet (Stockholm) to Swedish Consulate (New York)
and Embassy (Washington), 22 April 1953, file "Svensk-amerikanska press 1950
Okt-1953," volume S4, box 1:461, U D Pressbyrån collection, Riksarkivet,
Stockholm.
109. Ibid.
110. Letter from Vilhelm Moberg to Edgar Swenson, 9 April 1953, file
"Brev från Vilhelm Moberg," L 172:2, Vilhelm Moberg collection, Kungliga
Biblioteket, Stockholm.
111. Letter from Lennart Nylander to Olof Rydbeck (head U D Press Bu­reau),
6 May 1953, file "Svensk-amerikanska press 1950 Okt-1953," volume
S4, box 1:461, U D Pressbyrån collection, Riksarkivet, Stockholm.
112. Ibid.
113. Letter from Lasse Widehag (reporter Göteborg's Handelstidning) to
George P. Johansen, 4 A p r i l 1953.
114. Letter from Nils F. Brown to Olof Rydbeck (head U D Press Bureau), 4
May 1953, file "Svensk-amerikanska press 1950 Okt-1953," volume S4, box
1:461, U D Pressbyrån collection, Riksarkivet, Stockholm.
115. Letter from George P. Johansen to Lasse Widehag, 8 A p r i l 1953.
116. Björk, " A Swedish-American View of Sweden," 30.
117. "Svensk-Amerikan: McCarthy siktar på diktatur," N y Dag, 13 May
1953, p. 6.
118. Björk, " A Swedish-American View of Sweden," 30. See also Brown's
articles in Svea: "Efter fyrtiotre år," 23 April; "Glimtar från dagens Sverige," 21
May; and "Titt bakom svenska kulisserna," 11 June 1953.
119. Letter from Ambassador Eric Boheman to Olof Rydbeck (head U D
Press Bureau), 23 April 1953, file "Svensk-amerikanska press 1950 Okt-1953,"
volume S4, box 1:461, U D Pressbyrån collection, Riksarkivet, Stockholm.
120. Letter from Nils F. Brown to Vilhelm Moberg, 30 May 1953, file "Brev
till Vilhelm Moberg från olika personer A - J , " L 144:1a Tillägg, Vilhelm Moberg
collection, Kungliga Biblioteket, Stockholm.
121. Sven Åhman, "Boheman tuktar illvillig kritiker," Dagens Nyheter, 24
June 1953, p. 7.
122. Letter from Nils F. Brown to Vilhelm Moberg, 25 June 1952 [sic 1953],
file "Brev till Vilhelm Moberg / Bonniers Förlag Br-Bö," L144:1A, Vilhelm
Moberg collection, Kungliga Biblioteket, Stockholm.
123. Letter from Nils F. Brown to Vilhelm Moberg, 25 June 1952 [sic 1953].
124. Björk, " A Swedish-American View of Sweden," 31.
125. Ibid.
126. Ibid., 29-30.
127. Ibid., 31.
128. Letter from Sven Backlund (Embassy Washington) to Kjell Öberg
56
(head of College for Swedish Information Abroad), 22 December 1958, file
"Svensk-amerikanska press 1954-1959," volume S4, box 1:461, U D Pressbyrån
collection, Riksarkivet, Stockholm.
129. Letter from Lennart Nylander to Olof Rydbeck, 6 May 1953.
130. Letter from Lennart Nylander to Olof Rydbeck (head U D Press Bu­reau),
26 August 1954, and reply 31 August 1954, file "Svensk-amerikanska
pressen 1954-1959," volume S4, box 1:461, U D Pressbyrån collection, Riksarkivet,
Stockholm.
131. Quote by Anna Lenah Elgström in letter to Bengt Pleiel (ASNE
Stockholm), 14 April 1956, file "Svensk-amerikanska press 1954-1959," vol­ume
S4, box 1:461, U D Pressbyrån collection, Riksarkivet, Stockholm.
132. Letter from Vilhelm Moberg to Nordstjernan, 31 March 1953.
133. Letter from Edgar Swenson to Vilhelm Moberg, 26 October 1953, file
"Brev till Vilhelm Moberg från olika personer K-Ö," L 144:1a Tillägg, Vilhelm
Moberg collection, Kungliga Biblioteket, Stockholm.
134. A l l a n Kastrup, "Från solsken till oväder med Vilhelm Moberg som
följd av Haijbyaffären," Med Sverige i Amerika, 198-203.
135. Telegram from Lennart Nylander to Olof Rydbeck (head U D Press
Bureau), 23 A p r i l 1953, file "Svensk-amerikanska press 1950 Okt-1953," vol­ume
S4, box 1:461, U D Pressbyrån collection, Riksarkivet, Stockholm.
136. Letter from Edgar Swenson to U D , 20 April 1953, file "Svensk­amerikanska
press 1950 Okt-1953," volume S4, box I:461, U D Pressbyrån col­lection,
Riksarkivet, Stockholm.
137. A l l a n Kastrup, "Ang. Haijbyaffären m.m. i Amerika," 16 A p r i l 1953,
1, 2, file "Svensk-amerikanska press 1950 Okt-1953," volume S4, box 1:461,
U D Pressbyrån collection, Riksarkivet, Stockholm.
138. Moberg, A t t Övervaka Överheten, 181.
139. Letter from Vilhelm Moberg to Consul Lennart Nylander, 26 August
1954, file "Svensk-amerikanska pressen 1954-1959," volume S4, box 1:461, U D
Pressbyrån collection, Riksarkivet, Stockholm.